M 



ISTORIC 



H 



TAFFORDSHIRE 




ISTORIC 




TAFFORDSHIRE 



BY 



ROBERT K. DENT and JOSEPH HILL 




THE ERIDESTONES, BIDDULPH. 



EP PUBLISHING LIMITED 

1975 



First published 1896 by The Midland Educational 
Company, Limited 






.^' 






Republished 1975 by 

EP Publishing Limited 

East Ardsley, Wakefield 

West Yorkshire, England 



Copyright © 1975 EP Publishing Limited 



ISBNO 7158 1129 




qP 



Please address all enquiries to EP Publishing Limited 

(address as above) 



Printed in Great Britain by 

The Scolar Press Limited 

Ilkley, West Yorkshire. 




PREFACE. 

HIS work does not claim to be a history of the county of 
Stafford, or even a topographical enumeration of all its char- 
acteristic features. To do this would require a work planned 
on a far different scale, and would have led to a wide 
departure from the scope of the series of which this work forms a volume. 
It has rather been the task of the writers to bring into prominence those 
episodes in the history of the county in which it has touched the history 
of the realm, and to call up memories of famous sons of the shire. 

For Staffordshire has played no unimportant part in the history of England. 
It was within this shire that the throne was cradled and grew up to lusty 
youth. Here the early Saxon rulers had their home and lived their lives. 
Within the boundaries of the shire lived many noble and illustrious families 
whose share in the making of history has been great. The nr.mes of 
Ranulph, Earl of Chester, of Ferrers, Basset, Verdun, Dudley, Devereux, 
and others, have loomed large in the history of England, and their doings 
have afforded fitting subjects for various chapters of this work. 

In the strife of factions and parties, which have at various periods rent 
and disturbed the kingdom, Staffordshire has played a prominent part, from 
the struggles of Saxon and Dane down to the last stand made by a Stuart 
against the House of Hanover ; and in the not less important conquests 
achieved by our captains of industry in widely different fields of enterprise, 
Staffordshire has been pre-eminent. 

To record these great achievements has been our chief task, an'd .in doing 
this we have had to pass over other important phases in the life of our 
country. It has been to our regret that from the lack of historical associa- 
tions of sufficient prominence, many places of considerable local importance, 
some of them possessing more than local interest, have received but slight 
notice in these pages. This, it will be noticed, is largely the case with 
the great industrial centres — the pottery towns of Stoke, Hanley, Newcastle, 
and Burslem, and some of the towns in the iron district, such as Walsall, 
Wednesbury, Bilston, Tipton, and West Bromwich. For a similar reason 



VI. 



PREFACE. 



some of the historic families of the shire, such as the offshoots of the 
Verdun family — including the Wrottesleys (deservedly honoured, not only by 
antiquarians, but by all lovers of history), the Giffards, and the great family 
of Talbot, the noble possessors of the baronial estate of Alton, which, as 
Alveton, was a possession of the first Norman bearer of the name, have been 
accorded little more than a mere passing notice. 

Our thanks are due to many kind friends who have greatly assisted us 
during the progress of the work. To P. L. Brocklehurst, Esq., Messrs. J. 
Cotton, J. Garland, J. Harrison, J. Gale, B. Karleese, and J. L. Allday, for 
the loan of photographs, prints, and drawings ; and to the Rev. G. H. 
Hinchliffe, the Rev. A. L. Chattaway, Messrs. W. B. Bickley, W. Salt 
Brassington, F.S.A., J. Fox, G. Hamersly, Richard Savage, G. Osborne, and 
other friends, for the loan of books and papers, or for valuable suggestions 
as to the work, we desire to express our gratitude, for the help they have 
afforded us. 




THE FIVE ROCHES. 









f^^::^ .:.- flH 


^Blqf.'.— .-.;,:■ .',. ___^ 


T'^^^-^^- *■- 



HANDSACRE HALL AND MOAT. 



Contents. 



Introductory 

The Upbuilding of Mercia ... 

Pagan and Christia.v 

"Good Saint Chad" 

Guthlac : Prince and Hermit 

Offa and Drida 

Ethelfleda's Fortress 

Earl Wulfric's Abbey 

Leofric of Bromley 

Lapley Priory and its Founder 
The Normans in Staffordshire 

Tamworth Tower and Town 

Earl Ranulph's Abbey of the Moorlands 
The Knights Templars in Staffordshire 
The Cathedral Builders: Roger de Clinton and Walter Langtom 











PAGE. 


I to 4 


5 .. 12 


'3 ., 19 










20 „ 28 










29 .. 32 










33 ,. 38 










39 .. 46 










47 ,, 53 










54 „ 60 










61 ,, 62 










63 ,, 69 










70 ., 77 










78 „ 85 










86 „ 87 


alter 


Lang 


TOM .. 




S8 „ 93 



VIII. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

The Barons of Chartley 94 to 100 

Robin Hood of Loxley lor ,, 105 

Croxdkn Abbey and its Founder 106 ,, 109 

Alrewas and its Ancient Manorial Customs 110 ,, 116 

Basset of Drayton 117 „ 121 

TuTBURY Castle and the Plantagenets 122 „ 129 

Malvoisin and Handsacre 130 ,, 134 

KiNVER AND Cannock: The Royal Forests 135 ,, 143 

The Battle of Blore Heath 144 ,, 147 

King Edward the Fourth and the Tanner of Tamworth 148 ,, 156 

The Eve of Bosworth Field: Richmond's March through Staffordshire ... 157 ,, 163 

The Noble House of Stafford 164 ,, 170 

The Collegiate Churches of Staffordshire 171 ,, 180 

The Legend of Ludchurch 181 ,, 185 

Chetwynd and Stanley 186 ,, 189 

Cardinal Pole 190 ,, 193 

The Scottish Queen at Tutbury 194 ,, 200 

The Three Dudleys 201 ,, 208 

The Three Devereuxs 209 „ 216 

The End of the Gunpowder Plot 217 „ 222 

Through Staffordshire in 1634 223 ,, 227 

Arming for the Conflict: Charles I. in Staffordshire 228 „ 2_o 

The Siege of the Close: A Beleaguered City's Sorrows 231 ,, 236 

The Battle of Hopton Heath 237 ,, 239 

The Wolverhampton Wool Staplers 240 „ 245 

Incidents of War: The Diary of a Royalist Colonel 246 ,, 252 

A Royal Fugitive 253 ,, 257 

The Goughs of Old Fallings 258 ,, 261 

Early Ironworkers: Dud Dudley and Fiddler Foley 262 ., 267 

Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton 268 ,, 279 

Faith and Freedom 280 ,, 282 

The Rise and Fall of a Famous Chancellor 283 ,, 286 

The Pretender in Staffordshire 287 „ 293 

Samuel Johnson and his Home 294 ,, 303 

The Early Potters 304 ,, 309 

A Captain of Industry 310 ,, 317 

Sons of the Shire 318 „ 323 

An Interesting Restoration 324 ,, 325 



%\Qt Of 3Uu0tration6. 



Thors House Cavern, Vale of the Manifold 

The Bridestones, Near Biddulph 

The Five Roches 

Handsacre Hall 

The Manifold, Ilam Park 

Leek Roches. The High Roche 

Oaks in Needwood Forest 

The Trent at Wolselev Bridge 

Hen Cloud and the Roches 

dovedale 

The Valley of the Dove 

Lichfield Cathedral (West Front) 

Cannock Chase 

St. Chad's Well 

St. Chad's, Stowe, Lichfield 

Lichfield in the Last Century 

The Crypt, Repton Abbey 

Early Church Door, Tutbury 

TA.MWORTH Castle in the Last Century 

From the Castle Hill, Tamworth 

Lichfield from the South 

Curtain Wall (Saxon), Tamworth Castle 

Tamworth Castle 

Hen Cloud from Swythamley Roches 

Stafford Castle 

Burton in the Last Century 

Friar's Walk, Burton Abbey 

Burton Abbey 

The Porter's Lodge, Burton Abbey 

King's Bromley : The Home of Leofric 

Map of Leofric's Country, Valley of the Trent 

King's Bromley Church 

Lapley Church 

Rolleston 

Tamworth Castle 

Window in Tamworth Church 



PAGE. 

Frontispiece. 

Vfgnetie. 



... pkolo., J. Garland 

pholo., J. Hill 

photo , W. H. Home 

woodcut 

... photo., J. Garland 

photo., W. H. Home 

photo., Jerome Harrison 

n 11 )) 

photo., Thos. Grundy 
... photo., B. Karleese 
photo., Jerome Harison 

)) I) )i 

■woodcut 

photo., Harold Baker 

photo., J. Hill 

{hoto., C. E. Weale 

woodcut 

photo., C. E. Weale 

II )) 1) 

photo., W. H. Home 
... photo, D. Bordley 
. . . from an old print 
... photo., R. Keene 

11 )i 

photo., J. Hill 
... photo., T. Grundy 

... photo., T. Grundy 

photo,. Garland 

photo., R. Keene 

photo., C. E. Weale 

fiom Dugdale 



VI. 

vii. 

2 

4 

7 

9 

lo 

12 

13 
i8 

19 

21 

27 
28 
29 
32 

33 
36 
38 
39 
40 
42 
45 
47 
47 
51 
52 
56 
59 
60 
62 
68 
70 
73 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Tamworth, from the Castle Keep 

Saxon and Norman Coins of Tamworth 

Remains of the Abbey, Dieu-la-Cres 

Ancient Relics Found near Swythamley 

On the River Dane 

The Dunge Falls, Upper Hulme 

The Ancient Manorial Court Room, Swythamley 

Lichfield Cathedral, from the South 

The Lady Chapel, Lichfield Cathedral 

A Tower of Chartley Castle , 

Chartley, from the Castle Hill 

Ancient Deed of Wolsley temp. Henry VIII. 

Croxden Abbey, West Front 

Croxden Abbey, Looking North 

Alrewas Church 

Bromley Manor 

The Trent, near Alrewas 

Wooden Bridge over Trent 

Drayton Basset 

The Black Brook 

Priory Church of Tutbury 

TuTBURY Castle and Bridge 

John of Gaunt's Gateway, Tutbury Castle 

Tutbury Castle: Ruins of State Apartments 

Gog and Magog, Mavesyn Rydware 

KiNVER 

Remains of Ancient Moat, Court Bank Cover 

View from Kinver Edge 

Cannock Chase near Beaudesbrt : Ancient Encampment 
Lord Audley's Cross 

MUCCLESTONE ChURCH 

Tamworth Road, near Basset's Pole 

Haselour Hall 

"The Slang Oak," near Elford 

Elford Church: The Stanley Tombs 

Old Iron Gate, Bridge Street, Stafford .. 

Stafford Castle 

Stafford 

Stafford Castle 

Ancient Sculptured Pillar, St. Peter's, Wolverhampton 

Stone Pulpit, Wolverhampton Church 

Old View of Tamworth Church 



photo., C. E. Weale 

photo., J. Hill 
photo. 

photo., J. Hill 

photo., W. H. Home 

.„ photo. 

... photo., T. Grundy 

I) 11 

photo., J. Hill 



photo., T. Grundy 

)) )i )) 

photo., J. Hill 

from Shaiv's " Staffordshire " 

photo.., C. E. Weale 

photo., R. Keene 

...from an old print 

photo., R. Keene 

11 II 

photo., J. Hill 



...photo., R. K. Dent 
photo.., ]. Hill 

photo., E. C. Weale 
photo., J. Hill 
... John Cotton 

.. photo., D. Bordley 

.. from an old print 
photo., J. Gale 



Shaw's " Staffordshire " 



page. 

75 
77 
78 
8i 

82 

83 



91 
95 
99 
104 
106 
109 
no 
"3 
"5 
1x6 
117 
121 
123 

125 
126 
128 
133 
135 
138 
142 
143 
145 
147 
149 

157 
159 
163 
164 
164 
169 
170 
172 
173 
•75 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



XI. 



"The Spital," Tamworth 

Ancient Font in St. Mary's, Stafford 

RuDYARD Lake 

ludchurch 

Shugborough 

TixALL Hall, 1686 ... 

Ingestre Hall... 

View from Kinver Churchyard 

Stourton Castle 

TuTBURY Castle 

Abbot's Bromley 

Okeover 

Dudley, from Castle Hill 

Old Town Hall, Dudley 

Chartley Castle 

Tixall Gatehouse 

Drayton Manor 

Bradley Hall, Kingswinford 

Holbeach House 

Old Shire Hall, Stafford 

Beaudesert, Present Day 

Tutbury Castle: The High Tower 

Dam Street, Lichfield 

Ancient Gateway to the Close, Lichfield 

Fac-simile of Title Page — The Articles of Surrender 

The High House, Stafford 

The High House, Stafford, Back View 

Old Hall, The Ancient Seat of the Levesons 

Wolverhampton, from Market Place 

Statue to Sir Richard Leveson, Wolverhampton 

Tamworth Castle and Church in 1780 

Trentham (17TH Century) 

Swythamley Park 

Old Moseley Hall 

The King's Hiding Place, Boscobel 

Bentley Hall 

View of Wolverhampton 

Perry Hall ... 

Rock Houses near Kinver Edge 

Ancient Bridge at Perry Barr .. 

Stafford Church 

On the Manifold 



photo., C. E. Weak 
... John Cotton 

photo., W. H. Home 

photo.y J. Hill 

... woodcut 

ffom Plot's " Staffordshire " 
from Plot's " Staffordshire " 

photo., J. Hill 

... photo.. A, Harrison Hill 

... photo., R. Keene 

photo. 

photo., J. Hill 

.. from an old print 

.. from an old print 
pom Plot's "Staffordshire" 
photo., J. Gale 

photo., C. E. Weale 
photo., A. H. Hill 

••• )i n )) 

from Plot's " Staffordshire " 
... photo., J. Garland 

photo., R. Keene 

photo., J. Hill 

old print 

photo., J. Hill 

... ,, ,, 

photo., J, Gale 

etching, G. Phoenix 

photo., J. Gale 

old print 

from Plot's "Staffordshire" 

photo. 

etching, Geo. Phoenix 

photo., J. Gale 

from Plot's " Staffordshire " 

from an old print 

photo., Thrupp 

photo., J. Hill 

,, ,, 

from an old print 

photo., J. Hill 



PAGE. 
177 
179 
182 
183 
186 

187 
188 
190 
191 
196 
200 
201 
204 
207 
211 
213 

215 
219 
221 
224 
225 
229 
231 
232 
236 
238 

239 
240 

243 

241- 

247 
249 

252 
253 
255 
257 
258 
260 
262 
267 
269 
270 



XII. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The Straits, Dovedale 

Bed of the Manifold, Summer 

Pike Pool, Beresfokd Dale ... 

The "Isaak Walton" Hotel, Dove Dale 

The Old College, Oscott 

Birthplace of Lord Macclesfield, at Leek 

St. Edward's Street, Leek 

Ancient Column, Leek Churchyard 

Meal Ark Clough 

Cheadi.e, View of ... 

Birthplace of Dr. Johnson 

Dr. Samuel Johnson (Portrait) 

Ancient House, Bore Street, Lichfield 

Lichfield Cathedral (Interior) 

Josiaii Wedgwood (Portrait) 

Wkdgwood Medallion, by Flaxman 

SoHO Park 

Matthew Boulton (Portrait) 

SoHO Factory 

Statue of James Watt, by Chantrey, Handsworth Ci 

Shugborough Bridge 

Beaudesert 

Oak FIouse, West Bromwich 

Oak House, West Bromwich 

Walton and Cotton's Fishing House, Beresford Dale 



photo., J. Hill 



from " The Oscotian " 
photo., W. H, Home 



. . . photo. 

. photo., T. Grundy 

old print 
photo. ^ A. J. Leeson 



old print 

old print 

, T. Garland 



photo 



drawing 

old print 

photo., J. Hill 



PAGE. 

273 

274 

277 

279 
281 
284 
286 
287 
292 
293 
295 
296 
298 
302 
305 
308 
310 
3" 
313 
317 
319 
323 
3^4 
3:6 

327 



Historic Staffordshire. 




Jntrobuctor^. 



MONG the Counties of England Staffordshire is exceeded 
in area and population by many of less note, standing 
eighteenth in regard to area, and sixth in population ; in 
the extent of its agriculture it is surpassed by many 
counties ; in the magnitude of its industries it is dis- 
tanced by two competitors, but in the wealth of its 
resources it must take the first place. In the products of the earth it is 
peerless. In no other county are the treasures of the soil found in greater 
abundance ; its wealth of ironstone and coal, as well as of fine clay for the potter 
and the artificer is proverbial, and it has also a most abundant supply of en- 
during stone for building purposes — limestone, freestone, and alabaster. In the 
variety of its industries it is without a rival. It includes among its productive 
resources extensive potteries and china works, covering an area equalling that 
of one of the smaller counties, silk and cotton mills, glass works, iron 
works, extensive engineering works, several coal fields, large and world-famous 
breweries, and maintains a population numbering more than a million. 

Thus advantaged in its industrial resources, it has also natural charms of 
the highest order. In the scenic beauties of forest and river, clifiF and chasm, 
hill and valley, moorland and plain, it is rich beyond compare ; and the full 
charm and variety of its scenery is known to few even of its own inhabitants. 
The moorlander of the north is ignorant of the lower Trent, of the 
expanse of Cannock Chase (oft likened to the Highlands of Scotland), of 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



the valleys of the Tame and Blackbrook, or of the idyllic beauty of the 
Chillington district, or the more prominent features of Kinver and the Stqur, 
or of Arley and the Severn. Still less does the toiler amid the mirk of 
the Black Country know of the glories of the extensive moorland, of the 
rugged mountainous Roches of Leek and the Cliffs of Ipstone, of the valley 
of the . rushing Dane or the waters of Rudyard, of the gigantic heights of 
Hen Cloud, of Mow Cop, Bunster, and Thorpe Cloud. What knows he of 
the wood-crowned heights of Ham, of the entrancing beauty of Deepdale 
and Narrowdale, of Beeston Tor and Thors-House Cavern, or the unequalled 
beauties of glorious Dovedale ? 




THE MANIFOLD, HAM PARK. 

What county can compare with this in its waters ? Drayton has sung 
the praises of its Tame and Dove, its Trent and Severn, but the Dane and 
Tean, the Stour and the Sow, the Blithe and the Penk, the Churnet and 
Blackbrook, although unsung, are equally worthy of the poet's theme, whilst 
the Hamps and Manifold, running as they do in subterraneous darkness 
for many miles, and rising .again amid a scene of picturesque beauty at 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Ham, not only create a feeling of admiration and wonder, but are probably 
unrivalled in the kingdom. 

The want of familiarity with the remarkable scenery of the northern part 
of the shire may be attributed to the changed method of travelling, and 
the substitution of railways for the old stage coaches. Several of the old 
northern coach routes lay directly through or near the county, and old 
time travellers had an easy habit of posting at leisure from town to town, 
resting at their inn as inclination led, filling note books with their impressions, 
or with extracts from guide books, whilst the poorer wayfarers, who made 
their journeys on foot guided by road books, or by finger posts, became 
acquainted with beauties to which the modern booked-through passenger 
is a stranger. Thus occasionally we meet with some old account of the 
remarkable scenery in Staffordshire, which seems to modern readers a mere 
fable, or a recounting of glories long since faded away. 

But if, instead of a century back, we seek the aspect of our county in 
the middle ages, ere the southern surface was scarred and distorted by the 
construction of vast works for the winning and working of its mineral 
wealth, and the sky became veiled with a canopy of smoke, ere its woods, 
near and far, were consumed for smelting its ore, when from Barr Beacon 
to Wulfruna's town — from Dudley's walls to the fringe of Cannock's wood- 
land was a continuous stretch of hill and dale, we shall readily discern 
that nature had been lavish with its varied charms, and for the glories of 
landscape, of wood, waste, and water this central land stood pre-eminent in 
fair England. 

In that far off time the clay beneath the pottery towns lay undisturbed 
save by the ploughs of the villagers in the common fields. Then, too, the 
far-reaching forest of Needwood stretched from Dove to Trent, and the still 
more extensive Royal Forest of Canok^ an expanse of woodland and moorland 
broken only by the settlement vills or towns within its bounds, joined hands 
with the great Arden at Drayton and Sutton on the south, and reached to 
Tixall and Stafford on the north ; again, the limits of the royal forest of 
Kinver comprised the whole hundred of Seisden, from Wolverhampton to 
Severn's bank on the extreme border of the shire, — and to these vast 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



woodlands we may add the forests of Macclesfield and of Leek, the Lyme 
Wood belt, which for nearly thirty miles formed a mark or wood-boundary 
from Cheshire, and the innumerable wooded lands throughout the county, 
many of which still survive. 

Nor are we dependant alone upon imagination in this conception of the 
past, for woods of ancient growth are still common, oaks and other trees 
of gigantic growth still exist, and many of fabulous size, long since fallen, 
are recorded, all which help us to a conception of the primeval aspect 
of our county in ancient Britain. 

Such is the county, whose historical associations, traditions, and stories 
are to form the subject matter of the ensuing pages of this volume. 




W. H. Home, 



LEEK ROCHES. THE HIGH ROCHE. 



Zbc inpbuilMng of flDercia. 




N the earliest traces of authentic history we find that the 
central part of Romanized Britain was peopled by the 
Cornabii, or Cornavii, that the part of their territory 
familiar to us by the metes and bounds of Staifordshire 
was its centre, and that its limits extended considerably 
over the present borders of Cheshire, Salop, and Warwick, 
and also, but to a more limited extent, of Derby, Leicester, and Worcester. 
If physical geography did not point out with absolute clearness that this 
central part of their land comprised many of the strongholds, cities, and 
stations of its inhabitants, we have abundant evidence of the fact in the 
survival of tumuli, earthworks, and roads, and the widely-distributed remains 
of British and Roman occupation, which from time to time have been 
brought to light. 

But while we have this general knowledge of pre-Saxon days there is no 
part of England so barren of historic facts, from the desertion by the 
Roman forces, in 411, until the close of the sixth century (when the 
country, from the Channel to the Forth, was subjected and newly-peopled 
by the Jutes, Saxons, and Engles) as that part of central Britain of which 
our Staffordshire is the heart. 

Nothing is more surprising in the history of our country than the fact 
that during that long and desperate resistance to the hordes of barbarian 
invaders of Pict and Scot, of Saxon, of Jute, and finally of the Engle or 
English, no note has survived of the fate of the Midlander. For 200 years 
the work of uprooting the Briton from his native woods was carried on 
with increasing activity. South, East, and North the shore was wrested and 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



held. Little kingdoms were created and civil dissensions arose among the 
invaders, but in the land now known as Stafford, with parts of Derby, 
Warwick, Leicester, Cheshire, and Salop, there is good ground for the belief 
that the inhabitants remained in their native fastnesses, and the civilized Britons 
carried on their trade and commerce in the city stations upon the old highways. 

During this lengthened period, even the methods of war and conquest 
must have greatly changed. With the displacement of the Briton going on 
around them, with the grip of the invader ever tightening its hold, and the 
area of their territory ever narrowing, every new conquest must have taught 
them the utter futility of resistance, as, notwithstanding their stubborn 
opposition, their countrymen everywhere found themselves driven before the 
invading forces, and even their cherished love of country must at last have 
yielded to necessity. When the inevitable came, the conquest of this people 
was consummated in so uneventful a manner, that not a vestige of record 
survives to tell the tale, and how the centre of the land of the Cornavii 
developed into the land of the West Engle and grew into the dignity of 
a kingdom will ever remain a mystery, and its founders, save for one 
solitary name, will ever remain unknown. 

All we do know, and probably all we ever shall know, is that this cen- 
tral land, rich in its picturesque beauty, with its hills and moorland, 
craggy peaks and rushing waters to the north, its great forests and fertile 
vales to the south, was eventually lost to its old people ; the songs of its 
bards were heard no more, and its sacred temples passed away. If not 
actually the last of the old tribal territories colonized by the Anglo-Saxon, 
it was virtually so, save those parts nearer the Severn which successively 
yielded to the disturbers as they pushed forward their frontier line. 

The displacement of the native tribes in other parts of the island was the 
gradual work of a century and a half, and the stubborn struggles whereby 
it was effected have been recorded in various ways. By this light we are 
guided to the final conquest of Central Britain. A lengthened and wearying 
period of devastating war and of ruthless slaughter, a gradual spreading of 
the earlier settlers in Kent, East Sax, South Sax, and West Sax, was 
followed on the East shore by the North and South folk, another North 



THE UPBUILDING OF MERCIA. 




HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



German people (the Engle men), a race destined eventually to dominate the 
greater part of our land ; and whilst the Saxons came in detachments the 
Engles transferred themselves bodily, and, with their coming, the whole 
of the eastern sea-front far away to the north was wrested from the Briton, 
and the conquest of the inner territory only remained to be effected, and 
this became merely a question of time. 

The earlier conquests of the Engle race had covered a great space of 
time, and they may have commenced their western advance ere their con- 
quest in the north was complete. 

The central land, which was eventually to become their greatest conquest, 
was occupied or annexed as the result of three separate movements, and 
possibly as to the first two by different people from different parts of 
the Engle coast ; thus the land now forming Notts and East Derby roughly 
defines one settlement, that known as the North Engle ; and that forming 
Leicester, Rutland, and Northants roughly defines another settlement, known 
as that of the Mid Engle. 

At this period, which may inferentially be fixed at about the year 550, 
Staffordshire, together with portions of the counties now surrounding it, 
was therefore unconquered, and perhaps untouched, and it was to this point 
that the last of the three incursions was to be directed, and problems of 
interest arise as to the completion of the last of the Engle settlements and 
the founding of the new Kingdom of Mercia, which speedily became the 
greatest and most powerful. 

If the advance of the invaders westward was made by the North Engle 
forces through Notts and Derby, it would be confined to the comparatively 
narrow limit roughly definable as the great valley of the Trent, until it 
struck the Roman Ikenild or Rykenild way. Any other approach from the 
east to Southern Cheshire on the one hand would be rendered impracticable 
by the barren peak land of Derby, and to the Northern part ot Warwick 
on the other by the impenetrable barrier of the great forest of Arden. If, 
however, the advance was made by the lower Mid Engle of Leicester, it 
would still be forced towards the same point by the Watling Way, skirting 
Arden until it reached the Tame near Tamworth, whilst an invasion by the 



THE UPBUILDING OF MERCIA. 



same people from the Soar, in a more southernly course through the valleys 
of Northants, to the felden of Southern Warwick (and such an advance 
was probably made) would lead to distinct settlements, and a junction with 
the Engle forces about the upper Trent was as yet an impossibility. 

South-East and North the ever-increasing forces of the Saxon and Engle 
were driving the natives forward. Every advance gave the invader the 
mastery of the Roman ways, thus in the western advance of the Engle 
their footing in the heart of Leicester was made sure by the control of 




THE TRENT AT WOLSLEY BRIDGE. 



the Fossway and the destruction of the Roman city of Ratae, near the 
modern Leicester. Thus safe in their rear they commenced the conquest of 
the fertile valleys between the forests reaching through the heart of England 
to the Severn. 

Pushing along the banks of the Trent the Roman Rykenild, or Ikenild, 
Way was reached near Repton, and the valley and road hence to Burton. 
Braunston, Alrewas, Lichfield, and Tamworth gave to the invader the 
junctions of Dove, Anker, Meuse, and Tame, and by the Sow, Churnet, and 



10 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Other tributary waters, opened ways which completely surrounded the wilds 
of Needwood and Cannock. Thus, by probably slow and gradual steps, the 
Engle at length became master of the clay and coal land of Mid-Staf- 
ford and the undulating country to the fringe of Arden. Practically 
isolated from the North Engle and the Mid-Engle settlements on the east, 




ty. H. Home. 



Uek. 



HEN CLOUD AND THE ROCHES, 
The Northern Boundary of Mercland. 

Stayed by the great rugged moorlands on the north, and by the impreg- 
nable wood on the Cheshire border, (subsequently their mark, lyme, or 
limit on the north-west, by Arden on the south,) and as yet prevented 
by the presence of the desperate native forces and the great but doomed 
city of Uriconium from pushing further west than the neighbourhood of 



THE UPBUILDING OF MERCIA. I I 



Oakengates — although the control of the Watling Way thus far had passed 
into their hands — the third Engle colony settled down as that of the West 
Engle, and by the still more definite title of the men of the Markenric, 
or Mearkenland. 

When this conquest began, or when it ended, we know not, but during 
the six years, 577 to 583, the West Saxon, under Ceawlin, had pushed 
inland to Gloucestershire, and, from his base on the lower Severn, was 
raiding in force along the Severn valley, his forces passed onwards from 
the Wrekin, and the fair and extensive city of Uriconium was left a 
charred and deserted ruin. 

The attack and sacking of the city must have been sudden and unex- 
pected, for penetrating further Cealwin's army was defeated and forced to 
retreat, but this great southern advance and failure must have considerably 
affected the settlement of the West Engle, and may, perchance, by driving 
the natives into their arms have promoted a treaty, with a defined mark 
or boundary between the two people. 

That some such event operated to fix the last new Engle settlement on 
a permanent footing is most probable, for we now obtain our first historic 
light in the chronicle that Crida was made King of Mercia, but of his 
right to assume a chieftain's title save the statement that he was descended 
from Witheley, the second son of Woden, we know nothing — when and 
whence he came is unrecorded, even the original extent of his little king- 
dom is practically unwritten. 

Guided, however, by the fact that the new kingdom adopted for a name 
that of the Men of the Merc, we may infer that Crida was the leader 
of the Engle folk, who had proceeded farthest inland in their conquests, 
and, further, that as the north Engle people of the peak country, with the 
Mid Engle of Leicestershire, together with the South Engle, extending 
south to Bedfordshire, were, at an early subsequent period, all included 
within the limits of the Mercian rule, it may be concluded that he was 
an /Eldorman trusted by all the Engle tribes, and whilst he may hereto- 
fore have been but a local leader in and about our shire of Stafford, from 
Marchamley in Salop to Marchington on the Dove, from the Borderland 



12 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



about the Churnet to Crida's Worth on the Tame, he or his immediate 
successor speedily governed the three Engle settlements, with their rapidly- 
extending bounds. He, therefore, belongs now to a wider area, and his 
name to that great central kingdom which hereafter plays an important 
part in the making of the English nation. 




DOVEDAtE. 




paoan ant) Cbristian. 

RIDA, the leader of the conquerors of Mid England, the 
founder of the Mercian kingdom, became ruler at an ad- 
vanced age, and dying after a brief reign in 595, Wybba, 
or Pybba, became his .successor. 

That Wybba was the son of Crida is generally accepted, 
the hereditary succession therefore is a proof that the 
kingdom of so recent a growth had already been organized under laws to 
which the people were accustomed. The habits of the Saxon races differed 

greatly from those of the Briton. 
Instead of herding together in the 
safer retreats of wood and moun- 
tain, as did the native tribes, or 
in the fortified cities and stations 
as the Romanized portion of the 
population, the new settlers spread 
themselves over the land which 
most invited cultivation. Each chief, 
with his followers, put together a 
homestead, surrounded by a few tem- 
porary buildings, and founded a Tun, 
Ham, or Worth ; and by a just 
division partitioned the occupancy of 
the soil, which, with the land of 
the lord, was tilled by the little 
community, thus forming the lord- 
ship, or manor, which has come 
down to our own times. They 









,, 








' ■' >■'"' 


m 


K^^^frj* ^^ 




' x^ 


1 






•-* 


1 






m 


tt'MBBpl^^gfc.V^ 




^^■v. . J 


1 






^^ 


^^ 


^1 






!K{SHigte5-^agJ^Ss^»^ii8w 


1 






^M 



THE VALLEY OF THE DOVE. 



t4 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



lived under laws with which all were familiar — laws and customs which with 
but little change continued for looo years, and whilst each village shared in 
its own local government, questions of a wider import were settled at the 
greater Court of the hundred, and those again of still greater scope by the 
grouped representatives at the higher gathering or Folk Moot, and' by the 
decision of the latter the selection of a new king from the family of the 
last king would be made. 

To support and defend the boundary or frontier line on the western parts 
of the new kingdom would, during the first twenty years of its existence, 
be the chief responsibility of its kings, and it was upon or near the 
present borders of Staffordshire that defence was most needed. Those places, 
therefore, which were afterwards associated with the later kings — the Burgh 
and Camp at Maer, Bury Bank, Stone, Kinver, Chesterton, Stafford, and such 
strategetic points as Tamworth, Kingsbury, Lichfield, Repton, and Tutbury, were 
probably among the most-used stations of Crida, Wybba, and Cearl, and until 
the later acquisition of new territory the seats of the court of the kings. 

But with the accession of Penda, the grandson of Crida, Mercia rapidly 
developed, and by new conquests its boundaries were largely extended. If 
war and bloodshed make kings great, Penda was the greatest of his age. 
As Crida was the founder so was Penda the maker of Mercia. His exclu- 
sion from the kingship by Cearl may have largely influenced his character ; 
he appears to have recovered it by force, as by force he upheld it. Of 
his early years, however, little is recorded, but with the development of his 
career as a warrior history accords him prominence. 

The conquest of North Warwick, South Cheshire, with Shropshire and 
Worcester, to the Severn, may in part have been already accomplished, but 
the overthrow in battle of the hitherto friendly, if not allied, Saxons at 
Cirencester, and the addition of Gloucestershire and Hereford to his king- 
dom, were merely preludes to a career of conquest which led him north, 
east, and south, and eventually made him supreme from the Thames to the 
Humber, from the Severn to the coast of Norfolk. 

Social influences may probably have contributed to the growth of the 
Midland Kingdom, originally a petty province, existing upon sufferance of 



PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN. I? 



the older kingdoms near the coast, its fertile valleys may have attracted 
adventurous settlers, and the advantage of an undisputed water-way to the 
Humber, and a long period of peace, may have largely contributed to a 
rapid development exceeding that of all the other kingdoms. 

During Penda's reign his people comprised many diflferent tribes or clans, 
and he found it politic to constitute the Mid-Engle, or Leicester folk, 
a sub-kingdom under his son Peada, a fact which considerabl}- strengthens 
the probability that Staffordshire still remained the chief or central seat 
of Penda's extended dominions. 

Nearing his 8oth birthday Penda might fitly have ended his days in 
peace, but watchful and eager for new conquests he attempted the subjec- 
tion of his northern rival. In 655 he fought his last battle and failed, he 
was slain whilst fighting among his followers, and at one blow the conquests 
of a lifetime were lost, his enemies were avenged, and the triumphant songs of 
the conqueror heralded the downfall of the great kingdom he had built up. 

King Oswin, the conqueror, the father-in-law of Peada, took possession of 
Mercia, he even removed Peada from the sovereignty of Leicester, but per- 
mitted him to rule a land almost identical with that which originally formed 
the Markland, in other words of Staffordshire and portions of the surrounding 
shires. All other portions fell away to fragmentary states. 

But, great as were these changes, others yet greater speedily followed. 
Mercia had steadfastly held to the old superstitions in their temples — the 
gods of Woden were still invoked. Under the power of the northern ruler 
Peada pushed forward the new worship and the new priesthood. The first 
bishop was the Saxon Diuma, whom, with three Saxon priests, he had 
caused to be sent from Lindisfarne, but whether first located at Lichfield or 
temporarily at Repton, near Burton, is uncertain. Scarcely had this taken 
place when Peada, for reasons which are unrecorded, was treacherously 
murdered by his wife and mother-in-law, and Oswin seized upon the little 
remnant of a kingdom and held it for more than two years, and under 
his rule another northern bishop, Cellagh, succeded Diuma. 

Penda had, however, left four sons other than Peada. Saxon and Engle 
alike had a cherished custom of choosing their own rulers, and their 



1 6 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



choice fell upon Wulfhere, the next in seniority [a.d. 658]. Wulthere had 
hitherto, it is said, remained in hiding, but Oswin had now to contend 
with a man of commanding ability, who with the vigour of manhood com- 
bined a knowledge of war. The revolt, which was not confined to 
StaflFordshire, was thorough and complete, — Oswin was driven back, his 
power in the Midlands finally overthrown, and Wulfhere during sixteen years 
led the men of Mercia to new conquests. He speedily attached Cheshire as 
far as the port of Chester. In Hereford he set up a sub-kingdom for his 
younger brother Merewald, penetrated to the centre of Wessex, conquered 
the Isle of Wight, marched along the valley of the Thames to Surrey and 
Sussex, and from the Mersey to the south coast, from Lincoln to Bristol, 
his supremacy was acknowledged. 

But it is with his Staffordshire connection we have chiefly to deal. The 
sparsity of historic record as to the Mercian Kingdom had come to an end. 
By reckless bloodshed its rulers had earned the respect of the chroniclers, 
and although their tales are oft contradictory, oft fabulous, and oftener devoid 
of all truth. The story of St. Chad and the youthful sons ot Wulfhere, 
has in its main features lived unaltered for twelve centuries, and is, perhaps, 
as worthy ot belief as many of the chronicles of the time. Although 
Wulthere is said to have professed Christianity upon his marriage with 
Ermenilda of Kent, it can scarcely be doubted that he really became a 
Christian, after, and not previous to, his selection as King ; by him, Cellagh, 
the Lichfield Bishop, was driven from his territory, and indeed his Paganism 
was a necessity in the choice of the people. Whatever may have been the 
cause of his conversion, it is undoubted that he promoted Christianity from 
a very early period of his reign, for in the year 661, the West Saxon King 
was baptised at his persuasion, and thus far the story of his son's murder, 
and of his subsequent conversion are supported. 

So far as a Saxon king may be said to live at any one spot, Wulfliere fixed 
his home at Bury, or Berry Bank, a hill over-looking the Trent. The 
stronghold became known as Wtilfcrecesier^ and the town of Stone is its 
modern representative. Here occurred the oft-told tragedy of Wulfade and 
Ruffine, the story of which will be told in the succeeding chapter. 



PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN. I7 



Whatever may have been the cause of Wulfhere's conversion, it is remarkable 
that his family became distinguished for its support of Christianity. We have 
seen the conversion of Penda's two sons — Peada and Wulfhere. Their sister 
became famous as St. Audry, in connection with the cathedral of Ely ; whilst 
another sister — Cyneberg — married the Christian Prince Alfred of Northumbria, 
and afterwards became a nun. Peada commenced, and his brother Wulfhere 
completed, the foundation of the famous Abbey of Peterborough, the Mede- 
hampstead and golden city of early days. Yet another son of Penda — 
yEthelred, — who succeeded Wulfhere as King of Mercia, by division of his 
kingdom into separate sees, gave Christianity stability and a new life ; 
and, after a reign of 29 years, in 704, gave up his crown to his nephew, 
Cenred, son of Wulfhere, and retired to the Abbey of Bardney, Lincoln- 
shire, founded by his wife, Osthryth remaining a monk there until his death 
in 716. 

Nor does this end the story of self-abnegation, for Cenred, the son of 
Wulfhere, after a short reign of five years, at the persuasion of his aunt 
Cyneswitha, gave up his kingship, and turned monk ; whilst another of 
Wulfhere's children, the saintly Werbergh, became famous throughout and 
beyond the limits of Mercia. By her uncle, .^thelred, she was placed at 
the head of three great convents of women, with a spiritual charge in the 
new Christian state, over all females whose lives were devoted to religion. 
She is said to have founded the first church at Chester, and died about 
700, and when, two centuries later, the great ./Ethelfleda, a daughter of Alfred, 
founded the Abbey of Chester, she dedicated it to St. Werbergh. 

Among the peculiar and varied causes which have operated in the beatifi- 
cation of saints of all nations — that which enrolled Werbergh's name deserves 
recording : — About eight years after burial, her coffin was opened and her 
body was found completely preserved and unaltered, even to the vestments. 
This was accepted as a miracle, and in the course of a few years, or by the 
time of .^thelbald, who succeeded his cousin, Coelred, 716, her sanctity had 
grown until she had attained a fame which gave her precedence among the 
latest national saints ; a reputation, which was naturally upheld by her royal 
relatives. 



i8 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



The division of the Mercian See of Lichfield, which took place about 675, 
is of great value in determining the original bounds of the West Engle 
Mark. It is admitted that the popular Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore 




T. Grundy, 



LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL (IVest Front.) 



Lichfield. 



PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN. 



19 



of Tarsus, who was engaged for several years in this work of division, was 
guided by historic foundations in forming the new dioceses. His organization 
of the vast diocese of Mercia was masterly and laborious ; but, upon the 
succession of ^thelred, it was brought to a successful issue, and the kingdom 
was divided into five Sees — Leicester, as representing the tribal Mid Engles ; 
Sidnacester, the North Engle ; Worcester, the Hwiccas ; and Hereford, the 
Hecannas ; thus leaving Lichfield, as representing the original land of the 
Men of the Mark — with such extensions as, during a century, had been made 
by clearances in the adjacent forests and other causes. The cathedral 
church of St. Chad of Lichfield, is not only the mother of all Midland 
churches, but, historically, a monument perpetuating the great change from 
Pagan worship. 




CANNOCK CHASE. 




"6oob Saint Cba^" 

THE APOSTLE OF THE MERCIANS. 

HE country of the Mercians, lying about the Trent, and 
comprising, for the most part, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and 
Warwickshire, remained in heathenism until beyond the 
middle of the seventh century. Doubtless there were, here 
and there, small companies of Christians massed together 
for mutual protection against their Pagan enemies, as we 
know there were elsewhere in various parts of Britain, and probably one of 
these little communities may have settled in the fertile Staffordshire valley 
wherein the city of Lichfield was afterwards planted. If so, this may afford 
ground for the tradition that in early times a considerable number of 
adherents of the new faith were put to death on this site during the 
Diocletian persecution (in which Alban suffered martyrdom at Verulam), and 
that this circumstance gave rise to the name of this site, Lichfield — the 
field of the dead, or " dead men's plot." Both the story and the deriva- 
tion are hinted at in the emblem adopted as the corporate seal of the 
city. 

At the darkest hour of Mercian heathenism, however, the light dawned 
in a most unexpected manner. Peada, the son of the Pagan King, Penda 
of Mercia, became a suitor for the hand of the daughter of Oswy, King of 
Northumbria, and the condition made by Oswy of Peada's acceptance was 
that he should embrace Christianity, and induce his people to do likewise. 
Peada readily accepted the King's conditions, and was instructed by Alchfrid, 
the son of Oswy, in the new faith. 



" GOOD SAINT CHAD. 



21 



In those early days the real life and energy of British Christianity were 
centred in the north, and the Northumbrian Christians looked not to Rome 
for their religious centre, but to Ireland. From the sister isle missionaries 




ST. CHADS WELL. 



came over in great numbers to wander into the wildest parts of heathen 
England ; and to the Irish monasteries the northern converts journeyed in 



22 HISTORIC STAPFORDSHIRK. 



order to benefit by a residence in the great centres of learning and piety 
in that island. Among those who went thither for this purpose were four 
brothers, natives of Northumbria, Cedda (or Cedd), Ceadda (or Chad), 
Cynibill, and Caelin, and these, after living some time in Ireland, all 
became priests and returned to labour in their native country. The newly- 
converted Mercian prince induced the second of these brothers, Chad, to 
accompany him, with three other priests — Adda, Betti, and Diuma — on his home- 
ward journey, and to aid him in his labours for the conversion of Mercia. 
Peada had been admitted by Penda, his father, to a share in the govern- 
ment of a province of his kingdom, and no objection seems to have been 
raised by the heathen King to his son's Christianizing efforts. Moreover, 
Peada was destined very soon to exercise independent lordship over a portion 
of the kingdom of Mercia, for, in the autumn of 655, Penda was overthrown 
in the last assault upon Christian Northumbria, in a battle fought at Wing- 
field, near Leeds ; and Peada became lord of Mercia, an over-lordship being 
exercised throughout his territory by Oswy, King of Northumbria. There- 
upon Peada created Diuma bishop of the whole Mercian district, acting as 
a wandering missionary, and having no fixed seat, although for a short period 
he governed his see from the monastery of Repton, which has been styled 
"The Westminster Abbey of Mercia." 

We need not here refer minutely to the three successors of Diuma, in 
the See of Mercia, further than to record their names. Diuma was suc- 
ceeded, in 658, by Ceollach, who abandoned his see after the successful 
revolt of the Mercians against the over-lordship of Northumbria in 659. 
His successor was Trumhere, who died in 662, and was followed by Jaruman, 
who is reckoned by some authorities as the first Bishop of Lichfield. Within 
the brief space of time covered by the episcopate of these four bishops, the 
first Christian lord of Mercia had been succeeded by his brother, Wulihere, 
also an adherent of the new faith, Peada having been assassinated in or 
about the year 660. 

In recording Chad's first mission work in Mercia, mention should be made 
of the traditionary story of the conversion and murder of Wulfhere's two 
sons, Wulfade and Ruffind. 



"iGOOD SAINt CHAD." 2$ 



The version of the legend, as given in 1686 by Plot, upon the authority 
of John Ross, of Warwick and of Dugdale,* is to the effect that Chad, 
coming first to Staffordshire, in a secret place, where he lived upon the 
milk of a doe, which being hunted by Wulfade, son of Wulfhere the King, 
brought him to the cell of the Saint, who first converted him to the 
Christian faith, and his brother Ruffine after. That the cell, by a spring 
side at Stowe, near Lichfield, being too remote from Wulferecester, they 
entreated the holy man to remove nearer, " to which," says Plot, " I find S. 
Ceadda readily complied, and came to another secret place not far off them. 
Whether under pretence of hunting to avoid their father's anger, who 
was yet a Pagan, they constantly came to him, and were instructed 
accordingly, but being observed by one Werebod, one of their father's 
evil counsellors who came from Wulferecester, and finding them at their 
devotions, in the midst of his wrath, slew them both — one at Stone, where 
a church, being erected over the place of their martyrdom, gave both name 
and original to that town, and the other at Burston, where a chapel was 
also erected. That S. Ceadd, having fled back to Lichfield, the King was 
struck with remorse, and repaired to him, was converted, and banished 
idolatrous worship from his dominions, and in 667 upon the death of Bishop 
Jarumannus appointed him to the See." 

Another version in Cox's " Catalogue of the Monuments of Lichfield 
Cathedral," says that Wulfade and Ruffine, the sons of Wulfhere, were murdered 
at the cell of St. Chad by a Pagan relative, c. 658. Hence they were 
honoured on the day of their death, viz. : July 24, and adds that the death- 
place has been erroneously printed at Stone instead of Stove (Stowe). 

Still another version gives Eccleshall as the place of St. Chad's altar 
within a Christian church, formerly a Roman Temple, that Wulfhere was 
absent at his castle at Uttoxeter ; but at the instigation of a woman named 
Werebode, hastened to Eccleshall, and slew both his sons with his own hand. 

Whether the story which connects Wulfhere with the murder of his two 
sons be true or not, it seems certain that he ultimately embraced Christianity. 

* " Monasticon," vol. 2, p. 122. 



24 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



We must now return to Chad. How long the zealous young missionary 
remained in Mercia is uncertain, but, in 664, he was called to be Abbot 
of Lastingham, in Yorkshire, his brother, Cedd — the late Abbot — having died 
there in that year. From this seclusion, he was recalled in 666, or 667, 
to the bishopric of Northumbria, the seat of which was at York. On the 
death of Tuda, the former bishop, Wilfrid had been appointed to this See, 
but as the new bishop had tarried a long time in Gaul (whither he had 
gone in order to receive consecration at the hands of a Roman Bishop), 
King Oswy became impatient, and appointed Chad to the bishopric, sending 
him to Deusdedit, the Roman Archbishop of Canterbury, to receive ordination. 
On arriving in Kent, they found that Archbishop Deusdedit was dead, and 
were compelled to journey into Wessex, in order that Chad might receive 
ordination at the hands of Wini, the British Bishop of Winchester. " Chad 
being thus consecrated bishop," says Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History, "began 
immediately to devote himself to ecclesiastical truth and to chastity ; to 
apply himself to humility, continence, and study ; to travel about, not on 
horseback, but after the manner of the Apostles, on foot, to preach the 
gospel in towns, the open country, villages, and castles ; for he was one of 
the disciples of Aidan, and endeavoured to instruct his people by the same 
actions and behaviour, according to his and his brother Cedd's example." 

Now at this time a fierce controversy was being waged as to the validity 
of British orders, that is to say, ordination conferred by bishops who had 
derived their authority from the Northern or Celtic Church. The Roman 
Church, established by Augustine, had hitherto made no headway outside 
the Kentish diocese which that prelate had founded ; while the northern, 
or distinctively British Church, had, as we have seen, extended its influence 
throughout the kingdcrm of Mercia, and had sent one of its bishops to rule 
over the diocese of Winchester. In order to win over the British Church 
to Roman authority therefore, Theodore of Tarsus, a man of great tact and 
judgment, was sent from Rome to the vacant see of Canterbury, and his 
arrival in this country seems to have synchronised with the return of Wilfrid to 
the see of York, to find another bishop installed in his place. A dispute arose 
as to the validity of Chad's ordination, and at a word from Theodore, Chad, 



GOOD SAINT CHAD. 



who was one of the most humble-minded of men, was induced to return to 
the seclusion of his monastery, in the wilds of the Cleveland district. 

An interesting picture is given by Bede, in his history, of Chad's life in 
this remote spot. As had been his practice during his brief occupancy of 
the see of York, he wandered about the wild moorlands surrounding the 
Abbey, reading, meditating, or teaching ; and " if it happened that there 
blew a strong gust of wind, when he was reading or doing any other thing, 
he immediately called upon God for mercy, and begged it might be extended 
to all mankind. If the wind grew stronger, he closed his book, and 
prostrating himself on the ground, prayed still more earnestly. But if it 
proved a violent storm of wind or rain, or else that the earth and air were 
filled with thunder and lightning, he would repair to the church and devote 
himself to prayers and repeating of psalms, till the weather became calm."* 

The willingness of Chad to retire from the see of York in favour of 
Wilfrid was probably the primary cause of his subsequent appointment to 
be bishop of Mercia. At any rate, it was at the suggestion of Wilfrid 
that Wulfhere, King of Mercia, offered his bishopric to the noble-hearted 
Northumbrian, after the death of Jaruman. Chad was therefore again recalled 
from his moorland home at Lastingham, and was formally ordained — or his 
former ordination was ratified — by the Roman archbishop of Canterbury ; and 
he fixed his head-quarters at Lichfield, perhaps being moved to such a choice 
by the remembrance of the consecration which this site had received by the 
blood of the martyrs of Diocletan's persecution. The spot was well chosen ; 
it was pleasantly wooded and fertile, and not far removed from the junction 
of the Watling and Ikeneld Streets, the great arteries of communication with 
the outer world. He took up his abode near a wood at the eastern 
extremity of the city, as we now know it, near Stowe Pool. Here he set 
up his oratory, wherein, says Bede, " he was wont to pray and read with 
seven or eight of the brethren, as often as he had any spare time from the 
labour and ministry of the word." But his was no recluse life. He journeyed 
on foot up and down his extensive diocese, along the old Roman road, 

* Ecclesiastical History, p. 177, Bokn's Edition. 



26 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



he and his little band, sometimes chanting psalms as they went, preaching 
in remote villages, and setting up the cross in place of the old Druidic 
sanctuaries, and returning to his sylvan oratory to join with his brethren 
in prayer and praise. So zealous was he in his Master's cause that, although 
the Archbishop Theodore himself besought him to spare himself, and to ride 
about his diocese, instead of wearying himself with his continual journeyings 
on foot, he forbore to avail himself of this indulgence until the Archbishop 
provided him with a horse, and with his own hands lifted him into the saddle. 

But his labours in the new diocese were of brief duration. Within two 
years and a half of his consecration, the saintly bishop passed away. One 
of his companions named Owin, who had been prime minister of Queen 
Etheldred, but had chosen to cast in his lot with Chad, first at Lastingham, 
and afterwards at Lichfield, was at work in the fields near Stowe, a week 
before Chad's death, when, Bede tells us, " on a sudden he heard the voice 
of persons singing most sweetly, and rejoicing, and appearing to descend 
from heaven." The sweet sounds drew him onward, until he came to the 
bishop's oratory, and, as he entered, the place seemed filled with the 
divine melody. Chad enjoined him to repair at once to the church (whither 
himself also went), and to take with him the seven brothers of the 
oratory. When they were come into the church the bishop delivered 
to them his last injunctions to observe discipline and maintain peace among 
themselves, and foretold that within seven days after having heard the 
angelic music he would pass away. About the same time, one of Chad's 
old companions in Ireland received mysterious intimation of his friend's ap- 
proaching dissolution, in like manner as Owin had in the fields at Lichfield. 
This was Father Egbert, who, in referring to the circumstance in after years, 
in a conversation with Hygbald, Abbot of Lindsey, said, "I know a man 
in this island, still in the flesh, [referring, as Bede supposes, to himself], who, 
when that prelate [Chad] passed out of this world, saw the soul of his 
brother Cedd, with a company of angels, descending from heaven, who, 
having taken his soul along with them, returned thither again." 

Chad's foreboding was verified, and on the 2nd of March, 673, he passed 
away. He was buried at Stowe, and a wooden shrine, " made like a little 



GOOD SAINT CHAD.' 



27 



house, covered, having a hole in the wall," was built over his remains ; 
and to this shrine thousands of devotees made pilgrimages, counting them- 
selves happy if they could but thrust their hands through the hole in the 
wall, and take thence a handful of the dust which had covered the remains 
of the saintly bishop, which was deemed to be efficacious in restoring the 
sick, whether man or beast, to health. A legend tells how once a lunatic 
who, by accident, had escaped from his keepers, rested a night upon the 




ST. chad's, STOWE, LICHFIELD. 

tomb of the saint, and in the morning was found to have been healed of 
his malady, " sitting clothed, and in his right mind." 

Over the site of Chad's oratory, a church was built and dedicated to his 
memory, the pretty church of Stowe. His bones were removed to the Cathedral 
church, where his shrine was afterwards set up, but they were carried away 
by a prebendary, named Arthur Dudley, at the Reformation, and, having 



28 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



been taken hither and thither, they found a final resting-place, it is said, 
in the Roman Catholic cathedral of St. Chad at Birmingham. 

The pilgrimages which were made to the shrine of St. Chad, (one of the 
favourite objects of the earlier mediaeval pilgrims,) may be said to have 
laid the foundation for the growth and prosperity of the city of Lichfield, 
and the history of this diocese may, in reality, be said to date from the 
episcopate of " Good Saint Chad." 




LICHFIELD IN THE LAST CENTURY. 




Harold Baker, 



THE CLOISTER, REPTON ABBEY. 



Birmingham. 



(3utblac, prince anb Ibermit. 




HE beautiful story of Guthlac, the youthful prince of Mercia, 
whose saintly life in the solitude of the Fen Country 
made famous the site of the future Abbey of Crowland, 
is one which cannot be omitted from any record of the 
worthies of Staffordshire. 
Guthlac was the son of Penwald, who was a man holding 
high position in Mid- England, as being near to the throne itself, and 
descended from the same stock as the lords of Mercia. Guthlac was 
probably born a year or two before -^thelred began to reign over Mercia : 
that is, about the year 673, and would seem to have come under softening 
and refining influences, which, although over-borne for a time by the high 
spirits of youth and early manhood, bore fruit in his final choice of a religious 
life. Legend tells how a sign from heaven heralded his birth, and the 
name given him in baptism, although primarily of a tribal origin (from the 
Guthlacingas), seems also to have had a prophetic signification, its meaning 
being " the reward of battle." His life, during the years of his early man- 
hood, partook of the barbaric spirit of the age in which he lived. He took 
part in all the savage frays of the time. When he was fifteen years old, he 
gathered around him a band of his fellow- nobles, and for the ensuing nine 
years he joined with them in avenging private feuds, sacking and burning 
homesteads and villages, and in carrying off booty from their foes. But 
even while he engaged in this barbaric sport his conscience seems to have 
troubled him, and it is said that he was always prompted by the inward 



30 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



monitor to give back a portion of the spoil to those whom he and his 
companions had plundered. 

At the age of twenty-four, the influence of his early training made itself 
felt in a remarkable manner. " Suddenly," says Green, " as he lay sleepless 
in the forest among his sleeping war-band, there rose before him the 
thought of his crimes, and of the doom that waited on him. Such thoughts 
were stirred in many hearts no doubt by the new Christian faith ; but in 
none did they find a quicker answer. The birds waking with the dawn, 
only roused his comrades to hear Guthlac's farewell." He repaired speedily 
to the Abbey of Repton, near Burton, the great religious house of Mercia, 
and the burying-place of her kings, and there, divesting himself of the long 
hair which betokened the noble, he became a tonsured monk. 

In the year 704, ^thelred gave up his crown for the cloister. After a 
short reign of five years, his nephew and successor. King Cenred, followed 
his example. These events occurred after Guthlac had passed his thirtieth 
year, and with the religious zeal of the females of the royal house, he may 
naturally have been greatly influenced. King Cenred was succeeded by 
Coelred, a son of Ethelred, a man of very different stamp. He held the 
monks in contempt, and made war whenever opportunity served. He died 
in 716, according to monkish traditions, in delirium and blasphemy; but this 
is generally understood to mean that he was poisoned by them. 

After a season spent by Guthlac in studying the sacred books at Repton, 
and more especially in reading and hearing stories of the lives of hermit 
saints and others, who had given themselves up to a life of contemplation 
and religious service, he resolved himself to live the eremite life. Casting 
about him for some solitude in whch he could carry his resolve into effect, 
he fixed upon " the most desolate region in Britain — the vast fen that 
formed a-no-man's land, between Mercia and East Anglia." * Here, guided 
by a man named Tatwine, he found a lonely isle in the fenny swamp, the 
place afterwards known as Crowland. Here he took up his abode, with two 
servants to help him in obtaining a living out of the marshy soil ; his simple 

* Diet. Nat. Biog. xxiii., 373. 



GUTHLAC, PRINCE AND HERMIT. 31 

fare, barley-bread and water, his garment of skins, and his home, a hut 
on the side of an old grave mound, reputed to be haunted. For a season 
it seemed as though the saint himself were haunted too, for we are told 
he was continually tormented by visions of demons. At length there came 
a release from these fierce temptations — which may have taken the form of 
longings after the old wild life — and he found peace in his hermit cell, an 
outward and visible sign of which was manifested by the friendship of bird 
and beast. We are told that the former became so tame with him that 
they would hover about him, and perch unhindered on shoulder and knee, 
and rested in the thatch that covered his cell. 

The fame of Guthlac's holy life spread far and wide, and he had visitors 
from far and near. Hedda, the eighth Bishop of Lichfield, came to him 
from his Mercian home. The Abbot, Wilfrith, also came hither, bringing 
with him vEthelbald, the great-nephew of Penda, who had been driven into 
exile by Ceolred, King of Mercia, and he took refuge with the hermit in 
his lonely isle, receiving from him great comfort and consolation, with 
assurances that the day would yet come when the exile of Crowland should 
rule over his people, and be victorious over his enemies. Thus encouraged, 
^thelbald, says Ingulph, in his Chronicle of Crowland, " was so much 
refreshed in spirit that, without delay, in presence of his father, Guthlac, 
and the other persons then standing by, that which he conceived in his 
heart to do, he pronounced with his lips, and declared that as soon as it 
should be his lot peacefully to arrive at the helm of state, he would 
found in that same spot a monastery of religion to the praise of God, and 
in memory of his said father, Guthlac." 

Guthlac continued to dwell in his hut at Crowland fifteen years, at the 
end of which period he fell ill on the Wednesday before Easter, a.d. 714; 
and finding that his end drew nigh he gave instructions that he should be 
buried by the hand of his sister Pege, in a linen winding-sheet, and a 
leaden coffin, which had been sent to him by Ecburh, the Abbess of 
Repton, and he died on the Wednesday in Easter week. ^thelbald was 
still an exile, but when he heard of the death of Guthlac, he hastened to 
Crowland. Here, while dwelling in an adjoining cottage to that which had 



32 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



been occupied by the hermit, mourning the loss of his spiritual father and 
adviser, Guthlac appeared to him in a vision, and foretold that " before the 
year should have run its course, he should gain the sceptre of his kingdom, 
and should in happiness enjoy a lengthened course of days." 

Guthlac's bones were laid at rest in a shrine within the little church, 
which he had raised on the fen-girt island ; and .^thelbald, became King, 
as the Saint had foretold. After a long and prosperous rule, the career of 
^thelbald ended, as it appears to have begun, on the eastern boundary of 
Staffordshire, and his body lies at Repton. 




EARLV CHURCH DOOR, TUTBURY. 




TAMWORTH CASTLE IN THE LAST CENTURY. 




(S>ffa an^ Drit)a. 

ITH the single exception of that of Alfred the Great, the 
name of Offa stands out amid the records of the Anglo- 
Saxon rulers of England more prominently than any other, 
and although his origin, and much even of his career, is 
shrouded in mystery, his valour and daring, his energetic 
and enterprising efforts for the defence and development 
of his kingdom have earned for him an enduring fame. 

Under its former rulers, Mercia had grown from the smallest and weakest 
of kingdoms to the greatest and strongest. Each of its greatest rulers had 
by conquest extended its bounds, until the impotency of old age had brought 
defeat and left the kingdom at the mercy of its rivals. 

The reigns of Penda, of his sons Wulfhere and ^thelred, and of his 
grandson Ceolred, had each a somewhat similar ending. The latter survived 



34 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



defeat from the King of Wessex but one year, and was buried at Lichfield, 
716. 

^thelbald, his successor, the grandson of a brother of Penda, was brought 
from the seclusion of Croyland to the throne, and after a comparatively 
peaceful reign of forty years, he, in 752, suffered defeat at Burford, Oxford- 
shire, and retired to the heart of the original Mercland. For a brief period 
he continued fighting for his kingdom, and was slain in battle, or in a 
night revolt at Seckington on the Warwickshire border, near Tamworth. 
The reports of this engagement are very contradictory, they agree only in 
that he was treacherously killed by a Mercian Ealdorman, one Beornred, 
who set himself up as ruler, and the slain king was laid in the Abbey of 
Repton. The revolt, however, was not a popular one, and Offa, the 
grandson of Eanwulf a cousin of ^thelbald was chosen King. 

Nine generations before Offa, in that line which leads backwards to the 
inevitable origin of Saxon kings, the mythical Woden, tradition tells us of 
another Offa, the son of King Waermund. He was dumb and blind in his 
youth, and in danger of losing his throne, but miraculously recovered his 
sight and his speech, became wise and valiant, thus was he enabled to 
triumph over his enemies. 

Tradition again relates that when ^thelbald fell at Seckington, and his 
throne was seized by the traitor Beornred, a certain ealdorman of the 
Hwiccas, one Thingforth, a kinsman of the Mercian kings, had an only son, 
Winfrith, who was lame, blind, and dumb, and Beornred sought Thingforth 
and others of the royal stock to kill them ; that Thingforth fled, leaving 
behind him his blind, helpless son, Winfrith, and God had pity on him. 
He opened his eyes, and saw ; stretched forth his limbs, and walked ; 
essayed to speak, and spake ; his ears were opened, and he heard ; he 
waxed strong, and became mighty and valiant. The wise men called him 
no longer Winfrith, but Offa, and made him their leader. He went forth 
and slew Beornred, and, it is needless to say, became king, and ruled 
wisely, and warred terribly, and smote extensively. 

However much of this legend may be rejected it is certain that Offa, 
the son of Thingforth, was called to the throne, and became a great ruler. 



OFFA AND DRIDA. 35 



The early years of Offa's rule were defensive rather than aggressive ; nor 
does he come into prominence until after his marriage with the beautiful 
Drida, a relative of the great French King, Charlemagne. 

The remarkable and oft-told story of Drida is of monkish origin. For 
some crime committed she underwent the modified punishment of the ordeal 
by water. Sent adrift on the ocean in a small boat, fate brought her ashore 
within Offa's territory, presumably on the Dee or the Severn, and she sought 
the King's presence. Inwardly a fiend, but outwardly an angel, by her 
"beauty she gained his eye ; by a false but piteous story she gained his 
heart, and speedily became his queen ; * and whilst she enthralled her husband 
by the loveliness of her person, she broke the heart of his mother by her 
pride and cruelty. 

Apart from the evil influence of the lovely Drida, the career of OflFa is 
"but a repetition of that of his most valiant predecessors. Attacks upon 
Northumbria, Wessex, and Kent increased his territory and his fame; pro- 
longed contests with the native races, who still vigorously fought west of 
the Severn for such of the land as was still left to them, ended in the 
conquest of Shropshire and Hereford, and the creation of the great and 
lasting barrier known as Offa's Dyke, a vast trench from the Dee to the 
Wye, a hundred miles in length— the remains whereof are still visible— 
which formed a rampart that eventually attained the object of a definite 
Mercian frontier. 

All the Mercian kings, as we have seen, maintained a close connection 
with Staff'ordshire, and Offa was no exception. With courts in various parts 
of his kingdom, and necessarily maintaining a stronghold proximate to the 
Welsh frontier near Hereford, yet, as appears by a charter of 781, he kept 
his Christmas festivities at his " Regal palace in Tamworth," a place for 
which he had special regard. That he considered it as his central court, 
or capital, is manifest from the fact that one of the ambitions of his life 
was the conversion of the See of the neighbouring city of Lichfield to an 
Archbishopric. In this great work, notwithstanding the potent opposition of 



* A Saxon coin, struck by Quindred, Queen of Offa, King of Mercia, a.d. 758, was sold in 1805, by one 
Holt, a watchmaker of Eastbourne, to Sir Joseph Banks for £6. 



36 



HISTORIC STAFFOUDSHIRE. 



all the great ecclesiastics of the land, he succeeded, and, in 786, the chief 
Mercian church took equal rank with York and Canterbury^ and in an 
existing charter, the name of Hygbert, the first Archbishop, stands before 
the primates of those Sees. 




C. E. Weale, 



Tamiuorth. 



FROM THE CASTLE HILL, TAMWORTH. 



The great blot upon Offa's name and fame occurred seven years later, 
^thelbert, the young King of East Anglia came to Offa's court to espouse 
the Princess Elfleda. His suit, although acceptable to Offa, was distasteful 
to his Queen, and ^thelbert was foully murdered in the midst of the 
rejoicings of the court. Offa is alleged to have been innocent of the crime, but 
he certainly profited by it, inasmuch as he seized the kingdom of the slain 
King, and thus drew upon himself the stigma that attaches to this act of 



OFFA AND DRIDA. 37 



treachery. In all else he stands out prominently as a pattern of wisdom 
and greatness. In the regard and friendship of Charlemagne he had a 
powerful ally. As an English king, a soldier, and a law-giver, he surpassed 
all who had preceded him ; but henceforth this foul deed overshadowed 
the history of his life, and the remainder of his days were passed in 
remorse and misery. 

The tragedy may have been enacted at any one of Offa's numerous courts, 
but one near Hereford is usually specified as the scene. The great Abbey 
of Saint Albans is said to have been founded by him, after a pilgrimage 
to Rome, in expiation of the crime, but he died before its completion, in 
796. 

The baneful character of Drida extended, we are told, to at least one of 
her daughters. Edburga became the queen of Beorhtric of Wessex ; her 
marriage was the result of a base negotiation to expel from Offa's court 
the young and gifted Prince Egbert, afterwards King of Wessex, the grand- 
father of Alfred the Great ; this was in 787, Egbert had been sometime 
attached to the court of Offa, at that period undoubtedly at Tamworth ; 
he was driven an exile to the Court of Charlemagne. In 802, Beorhtric 
was poisoned by Edburga whereupon Egbert first became King of Wessex, 
and eventually of England. 

Offa's son, Egfrid, who had been joined in the kingship with his father, 
survived him but a few months ; Elfleda, the quondam bride of the young 
Anglian King, fled to the cloisters of Croyland ; and her mother, the 
wicked Drida is said to have been confined by Offa in a lonely fortress ; 
that to obtain possession of vast wealth which she had hoarded, she was 
eventually murdered by robbers, being tortured, thrown into a well, and 
allowed to die. 

Edburga, Beorhtric's queen, after poisoning her husband passed over to 
France, became Abbess of a monastery, but was driven out for immorality 
of life, and eventually ended a miserable existence as a common beggar in 
the streets of Pavia. 

Thus the regal magnificence of kingly pomp changes to the squalor of an 
immoral mendicity, and a monarch ruling under the halo of a mythical 



38 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



and god-like descent, by a personal bravery, a far-seeing wisdom, and a state- 
craft of the highest order, advanced to the forefront of European kings, in 
a brief period is blotted out, his line is extinct ; the very place of his 
burial is forgotten. 




LICHFIELD FROM THE SOUTH. 




O the visitor who spends an hour or two in the quiet streets 
of Tamworth to-day, or gets a passing ghmpse of the 
picturesque old town from the window of a railway car- 
riage, there seems but little in its modern aspect to call 
to mind the stormy scenes through which it has passed, 
ere it settled down to its long sleep in the fertile plain 
watered by the Tame and Anker. Yet, during the earlier years of its 
history, it was the centre of severe conflict between Saxon and Dane, and 
the scene of no little pomp and pageant during the years which followed 
the Norman Conquest, 

At what period Tamworth first had an existence it is difficult to determine 
with accuracy, but its nearness to the great " milky way " of the Romans 
— the Watling Street — which passes within about a mile of the town and 
the fact that the Upper Saltway, from Droitwich to the Lincolnshire coast 
passed right across its site,* there seems good reason to believe that there 
was a settlement of some sort here in Roman times. But even if this 
were the case, the place was probably of but little importance until after 
the settlement of the Mercian kingdom, when it became a royal seat the 
frequent resort of the Mercian kings. Unlike the other Saxon provinces 
Mercia seems to have had no proper capital, and Tamworth, as Mr. J. 'R. 
Green says, " was simply a royal vill at which the Mercian kings dwelt 
more frequently than elsewhere." Its position in the vicinity of the Watling 
Street, commanding as it did the passage of the waterway at an important 

* A lane leading out of Tamworth in the north-western direction retained the name of Salter's Lane^ until 
within comparatively recent times. 



40 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



point, doubtless first led the Saxon conquerors to make a stronghold of it. 
Under Offa it was further strengthened by the construction of a vast 
entrenchment or dyke, encircling the town on the landward side, traces of 




C. E. Weak, 



Tamivortk, 



TAMWORTH CASTLE. 



ethelfleda's fortress. 41 



which still retain the name of OfFa's Dyke ; and a palace was built, which was 
famed for its splendour throughout middle England. Here OfFa kept his 
Christmas festival in 781 and granted gifts to the monks of Worcester, 
dating the grants " from his seat at the royal palace in Tamworth," and 
from this time the name of Tamworth appeared frequently in charters 
granted by the kings of Mercia. 

When the pirates of the north began to make their way up the creeks 
and rivers from the eastern coast, and to harry the Saxon possessors of the 
land, these invaders speedily found their way up the Trent, and took up 
their quarters at Repton. From thence they marched forth through the 
whole Midland district, and among other places Tamworth fell into their 
hands, and was destroyed with its palace. It lay in ruins until Ethelfleda, 
the daughter of Alfred, restored and fortified it in 913 as one of a series 
of defences commanding the Watling Street road. On the rising ground, 
which overlooked the confluence of the Tame and the Anker, she threw 
up a huge mound, and crowned it with a fortress. This was the beginning 
of Tamworth Castle, and although little of the original building now remains 
above ground, the artificial mound, ditches, and embankments, and the 
massive curtain-wall across the dry ditch of the keep (now forming the 
path up to the castle) still exist, and the latter is regarded with deep 
interest by students of the history of architecture, as a fine example of the 
herring-bone masonry in existence before the Norman Conquest. 

Ethelfleda having, " by the help of God," built her stronghold, made it 
her chief home for the remainder of her eventful life. As the one con- 
spicuous copy of her father, the great and noble Alfred, as the last Queen 
of Mercia, the daring defender of its people, her memory is still deservedly 
held dear, and the links which connect her with our county claim a 
prominence in local history. 

Not only had Alfred married a Mercian wife, but his sister Elswitha was 
the wife of Burhred, the Mercian King, who, after twenty years of war with 
the Danish host, was finally driven from his kingdom. Alfred ascended 
the throne at a period of almost hopeless disaster. During his temporary 
hiding in Athelney, he was accompanied by his wife and his sister, the 



42 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Mercian Queen. The romantic events attending this enforced retirement, 
his speedy return to activity, his disguised visit to the Danish camp, 
and his subsequent victory over, and his noble treatment of, the foe, need 
no repetition ; the outcome of the whole was the treaty of 878, known 
as the treaty of Wedmore. 




IV. H. Home, 



Leek. 



HEN CLOUD FROM THE SWYTHAMLEY ROCHES. 



This treaty was of great importance to Mercia, and particularly to Stafford- 
shire—a district which may now be called by this name— as the division 
of Mercia into shires is said to have been effected during the Danish 
occupation in 876. To the Danish chief— Guthorm — was apportioned the 



ethelfleda's fortress. 43 



land east and north of Watling Street. That this boundary followed the 
course of the Roman way to Chester is not clear ; such a division would 
have given the Danes the greater part of our county, but, if we may 
judge by the survival of place-names, such an occupation by them was 
at most of a temporary character. 

The western Mercians were at this period led by the valiant Ethelred, 
an ealdorman and noble of the Hwiccas ; his services were of great value 
to Alfred, who rewarded him with the hand of his illustrious daughter, 
Ethelfleda, and made him vice-king of the remnant of Mercia. 

The Treaty of Wedmore was rejected by many of the Danes, and fighting 
was speedily resumed. With a boundary, which neither side respected, passing 
through the heart of the shire, the state of its inhabitants was a pitiable 
one. The rapid marches of the Danes, from London to their stronghold 
near Bridgenorth, were frequent, yet the Mercians steadily advanced, and 
the capture of Chester in 895, shows that they had gone northward to the 
valleys of the Churnet and the Dane, had penetrated the forest boundary 
of Lyme, and passed the mountainous Roches of Swythamley, and pro- 
bably the whole shire had by that time passed under the sway of Ethelred 
and Ethelfleda. 

Not, however, until 910, when Alfred had been dead nine years, were 
the Danes finally driven away. How steadily Ethelfleda and her husband 
had been acquiring fame is attested by the remarkable accord of all the 
chronicles of the time. In her wonderful career she had withdrawn herself 
from all domestic life, and given herself up entirely to the defence of her 
country. Every glowing term of admiration is accorded her. Even the title of 
Queen was thought inadequate, and she became known as the King of Mercia. 

The defence of a boundary reaching from London far away towards Chester, 
against a merciless, crafty, and energetic foe, was a task of great magnitude 
and involved a constant strife, carried on for thirty years. But the efforts 
of Ethelfleda, and her people were at length rewarded by the establishment 
of her kingdom on a firm basis. 

Various, and somewhat conflicting, are the records of the bloody battles 
which, in 910, were fought near Wolverhampton. " In this year," says the 



44 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Anglo-Saxon chronicle, " the Angles and the Danes fought at Teottenhale, on 
the eighth before the Ides of August,* and the Angles gained the victory." 

According to Fabius Ethelwerd, and other authorities, this battle was 
fought in the plain of Wodensfield, the Danes returning with the rich spoils 
of a raid in the west were there met by the Mercians and West Saxons. 
A battle ensued, and the English obtained the victory, the 5th of August 
being given as the date. The engagement at Wednesfield, however, was a 
second battle, fought in the following year, the Danes coming from the north 
to avenge the first defeat, and in this battle three Danish kings, or chiefs, 
were killed, and as supporting this it may be pointed out that the lows or 
burial places of great warriors are found both at Wrottesley and Wednesfield. 

The following year Ethelfleda became a widow; thenceforth she bore 
solely the rule and right lordship over the Mercians, to the admiration of 
the English and the fear of her foes ; not alone as a warrior on the field 
was she pre-eminent ; as a military engineer she became equally famous. 
Chester she rebuilt in 907, and in each year was some castle built or town 
fortified — Bridgenorth and Scargate in 912, — and in 913 she went with all 
the Mercians to Tamworth, and there built the fortress early in the summer, 
and after this, before Lammas, that at Stafford, and in the next year that 
at Wednesbury early in the summer, and afterwards in the same year, late 
in harvest, that at Warwick. 

Of these three Staffordshire fortresses, all traces of those at Wednesbury 
and Stafford are lost. Previous to the building of Ethelfieda's stronghold, 
the site of our county town is said to have been the retreat of the 
princely recluse, Berthelin, a disciple of St. Guthlac, and to have borne the 
name of Betheney. The castle at Stafford, which formerly occupied the site 
of the present castle, was of Norman and not of Saxon origin. 

Whilst the early kings of Mercia had no fixed centre of government or 
capital, it is yet certain that the royal vill or burh of Tamworth was more 
frequently than any other their place of abode, and Ethelfleda but followed 
her predecessors in making this commanding position her chief home ; and 
although Gloucester (probably the early abode of her husband) was much 

* Eight days before the 13th of August. 



ethelfleda's fortress. 



45 



favoured by her — and there she founded a monastery, and there was buried 
— yet to her stronghold at Tamworth would she return from every arduous 




D. Bordley, 



STAFFORD CASTLE. 



StaffonI, 



46 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



exploit. To Ethelfleda, by direction of King Alfred, was confided the 
education and training of her nephew Athelstan and much of his early 
manhood, whilst learning the art of war, would be passed at Tamworth, and 
some important incidents of his after life are associated with the place. 

Ethelfleda too much resembled her renowned sire not to have been 
bountiful and great in all her actions ; regal in her life, and skilful in 
her creations, her royal burh of Tamworth must have speedily attained 
considerable importance, and in the last years of her life she may have 
derived great help from Athelstan in the series of brilliant achievements 
which have given a lustre to her name. She defeated the Welsh under 
Prince Owen ; captured the Danish stronghold of Derby in 917, and 
Leicester, 918. York was also on the point of yielding to her power 
when she died at her home at Tamworth, according to the Mercian 
Chronicle, twelve days before Midsummer, 918 ; but, according to the 
Chronicle of Winchester, 922. 

With her death the chequered history of Mercia as a kingdom was 
brought to a close, but there is nothing inglorious in the ending. The 
bravery, characteristic of its greatest kings, was sustained, and, victorious 
and conquering, its people became united with the greater and wider 
kingdom she had helped to build up. 




BURTON IN THE LAST CENTURY. 




Earl Mulfric'0 Hbbei?. 

HE traveller whose impression of Burton-on-Trent is derived 
from the pyramidal piles of barrels which, battalion-like, 
flank the wide expanding line of railway in its vicinity — 
from the lofty store-houses and towering chimneys, whose 
smoke-wreaths darken the air, — may deem the Town of 
Breweries the last place in which he would expect to find 
anything of archaeological interest. Yet, but for the suppression of its 
wealthy and ancient abbey by Henry VIII., in 1540, Burton-on-Trent 
might to-day have been under the control of a powerful abbot, and a 
retinue of Benedictines ; instead of the great breweries and warehouses it 
might have boasted many noble ecclesiastical buildings and scholastic founda- 
tions ; perhaps, who knows ? the jolly old Benedictines might have found 
out the secret (if, indeed, they did not,) which has made Burton beer 
famous all the world over, and the abbey of Burton might have enjoyed 
a reputation similar to that gained by certain foreign monasteries in the 
present day, and the Benedictine Pale Ales of Burton Abbey might have 
achieved celebrity instead of those of Bass and Allsopp. 



48 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



For more than eight centuries the history of Burton— or Byreton-supra- 
Trent — was, for the most part, that of the rehgious foundations of Modwen, 
or Wulfric Spot, and it is difficult to understand how the place escaped 
being called Modwensbury, or Modwenstow, unless, indeed, its Saxon in- 
dwellers, with a prescience of its future fame, foresaw in the n?me of Byre, 
or Bere-town, a fitting appellation for the town of beer. 

The story of Modwen is differently told by various chroniclers. Two 
slightly varying versions of her history place her in the ninth century, and 
tell how she came from Ireland into England, having miraculously healed 
the king's son of his leprosy, and was afterwards entrusted with the religious 
training of Edith, and founded the Abbey of Polesworth. In one of these 
versions it is Egbert's son, Arnulph, whom she restores to health ; in the 
other it is Ethelwulf's son, Alfred (our Alfred the Great), who is cured, 
Edith being entrusted to the saintly Modwen's care, by her brother, Ethel- 
wulf, instead of by her father, Egbert. Another account fixes the seventh 
century as the period in which Modwen lived, and in this version, Egfrith 
of Northumbria (670-685) is the king mentioned, and Alfrid, or ^Ifrith, the 
son of Oswin, the king's brother, is the miraculously-restored prince, while 
his sister Elfleda is the recluse instructed by Modwen. In this case - and 
this is the more probable version of the story— the Edith of Polesworth 
(the St. Editha to whom Tamworth Church is dedicated), who died in 904, 
lived nearly two centuries later than Modwen's period. 

As to the close of Modwen's life the various accounts, for the most part, 
agree. It is said that she died in Scotland at the age of 130 years, and 
her body was brought for burial to Andressey, an island of the Trent at 
Burton, where stood the religious house she had founded, and her remains 
were subsequently removed to the abbey founded by Wulfric Spot. The 
epitaph from her tomb has been preserved by Camden : — 

Ireland gave Modwen birth England a grave ; 
As Scotland death, and God her soul shall save, 
The first land life, the second death did give, 
The third in earth, her earthly part receive, 
Lanfortin takes, whom Connel's country owns. 
And happy Burton holds the Virgin's bones. 



EARL WULFRIC'S ABBEY. 



49 



Thus, shortly after the founding of Repton, a community existed midway 
between that place and the home of the Kings at Tamworth. But Burton 
has a claim to a still greater antiquity, lying immediately upon the Roman 
Ikeneld Way leading to York, and upon or near adjacent to the Via Devana, 
from Leicester, through Chesterton-under-Lyme, to Chester. Such discoveries 
of Roman and British remains have from time to time been made, as leave 
little doubt of a very early occupation, near the site of the present town, 
which in those days was to a great extent covered by the waters of the Trent. 

Upon one of ihe islands formed by the wide spreading waters opposite 
the Church of Burton, Modwen fixed her cell, probably about the close of 
the seventh century. Its name of Andressey long survived in St. Andrew's 
Isle, and, until recent times, one spot retained the name of Mudwins-hole ; 
and Plot speaks of a well of holy repute in this locality, as St. Modwen's 
Well. Whether Modwen's Cell survived the long years of Danish occupation 
and irruption we have no authoritative record. A dawning reverence for 
religion may have preserved it from their fury, or it may have been blotted 
out of existence, but if so its memory remained, and the dawn of the 
eleventh century saw a new and more important edifice raised to her honour 
and saintly memory. 

In the years 1002- 1004, Wulfric Spot, the yEldorman or Earl of Mercia, 
with a munificence which, even in those days of regal bounty, claims our 
wonder and admiration, founded the great Abbey of Burton, and endowed it 
with estates not only in Staffordshire, but in adjacent and more remote 
counties. 

That Wulfric — the founder of the Abbey, the near relative of King 
Ethelred — and yElfric, the son and successor of .^Ifere (one of the earliest 
Mercian Earls, who died in 983) were one and the same, all chroniclers 
agree. Further than this, research as to his personality does not enhance 
our respect for the early historic records, which are even less reliable with 
respect to Earl Wulfric than to other Mercian nobles. By one authority, 
he is made the father of Leofric,* but this cannot be true, although he 



" Diocesan History of Lichfield," 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



was undoubtedly a relative of that earl. By some chroniclers he is branded 
as a traitor to his king, whilst others suggest that if he was not a traitor 
he had ample excuse for being one. The splendid services which he and his 
father had rendered to their country did not shield Wulfric from the vile 
treatment which he received at the hands of Ethelred. 

In 1004, two years after the founding of the Abbey, Wulfric obtained 
from the King a charter of confirmation, and this, together with the founder's 
will, is still preserved, and has been frequently printed. In the last-named 
document there are phrases and statements which are utterly at variance 
with the aspersions cast by some of the earlier chroniclers on the character 
of Wulfric. 

The estates disposed of by Wulfric illustrate the magnitude of the posses- 
sions held by a Saxon Thane. In Staffordshire alone, besides the land 
" where the minster stands," and " the minster which I have built," the 
Abbey lands in Burton were at the end of that century described as com- 
prising a hide and a half (between 150 and 180 acres), and the will 
enumerates lands in twenty-six townships in the county, some containing 
three, four, and even eight hides, and these comprised but a fourth of the 
whole. The land given to members of his family lay around Burton — thus 
RoUeston, Hurlaston, and Murchington lands passed to his sons, Alfhelm 
and Wulfage. The lands at Elford and Oakley, " to my poor daughter," 
and afterwards " to the Convent of Byrtun, because it was my grandfather's 
gift, and I will that Alfhelm be guardian of herself and the land," whilst 
the land at Stretton, and " the brooch that was her grandmother's," was left 
to his god-daughter, the daughter of Morcar and Eadgyth. To the brother- 
hood at Tamwyrth, Wulfric gave " the land at Laudun, all as they before 
released it to me and let them have half the rent thereof, and the monks 
of Byrtun half both of meat, and of men, and of stock, and of all things." 

Longdon, near Lichfield, is two miles from the ancient fort at Beaudesert, 
and a little more from Bromley, afterwards the home of Earl Leofric. This 
devise would point to Longdon as the home of Wulfric, and that he was a 
member of the Brotherhood or Gild of Tamworth, one of the earliest of 
these Anglo-Saxon fraternities recorded, although England is said to be the 



EARL WULFRIC'S ABBEY. 



5» 



birthplace of Gilds, and its existence is very striking testimony to the dis- 
tinctive position of the royal burg in the tenth and eleventh centuries. 

Wulfric made his brother ^Ifhelm and Archbishop yElfric the guardians 
of his will, which was made in 1004. The minster was already built, and 
a monastery and a convent are spoken of as founded, and the date, 1002, 




R. Keene, 



Burton-on- Trent. 



BURTON ABBEY. 



is always given as the year of the foundation. This was the year of the 
vaguely recorded treacherous massacre of the Danes, which is said to have 
originated at Murchington, and it is plausibly suggested that Wulfric founded 
the Abbey in remorse for the part he played in this act of villainy.* The 



Midland AHtiguary,\o\. tv., p. 97. 



^2 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



responsible author of the massacre, however, was Wulfric's bitter enemy, 
the base Edric Streon, who ousted him from the Earldom, married the 
King's daughter, murdered both Alfhelm and Morcar, and was probably 
instrumental in the blinding of Wulfric's two grandsons. 




THE porter's lodge, BURTON ABBEY. 



The treatment of Wulfric by the weak, indolent, but withal revengeful, 
King Ethelred ill accords with the concluding language of the will : *' mine 
own lordly king, so good and gentle-hearted." And equally puzzling is the 
statement of our historians, that after being deprived of the rule of Mercia, 
after the maiming and killing of those near and dear to him, he is still 
found fighting for his king and country, and that in loio he fell in battle 
at Ipswich. 

The history of the Abbey, until extinguished in the general dissolution 
of 1540, is full of interest. For five centuries its abbots were lords and 
rulers of the town, and controlled their forest of Bromley, where they kept 



EARL WULFRIC S ABBEY. 



53 



a forester. Although not mitred they were often called to Parliament. The 

possessions of the abbey were extended far into the northern counties ; it 

was favoured with several Papal Bulls and Royal Charters ; its buildings 

were greatly increased ; the bridges, buildings, and mills of the town were 

supported and maintained, and many historic events during its long existence 

are interwoven with its lasting records. 

But in 1540, Wulfric's great foundation shared the fate of other richly 

endowed religious houses, as well as of the less wealthy guilds and chantries. 

Their revenues passed to the coflFers of bluff King Hal, their lands to his 

favourite courtiers, and the grand old buildings, the rich memorials of medieval 

art and piety, were left to fall into decay and ruin. 

" Pillar and roof and pavement all are gone, 
The lamp extinguished, and the prayers long done ; 
But faith and awe, as stars, eternal shine — 
The human heart is their enduring shrine." 



Xeofric of Bromlei?. 




N the injustice done to the memory of a good and great 

man, English history has no parallel to that of Earl 

Leofric, a man of noble lineage and of eminent talents, 

whose long life was passed without a recorded blot or 

blemish, and whose death invoked a remarkable concord of 

adulation, deservedly gained by his piety, bounty, and 

integrity. Yet, notwithstanding all this, his good fame in the lapse of time 

has suffered from an idle tale, a silly fiction, created nobody knows how, 

three centuries after his death. 

The evil which men do lives after them, 
The good is oft interred with their bones, 

and legend and poem have painted for us a picture of Leofric as a coarse 

barbarian, the unjust oppressor of the poor, and a shameless tyrant who 

forced a degrading task upon his beautiful and loving wife. 

The legend of Godiva's ride through the streets of Coventry has again 

and again been proved to have no particle of foundation. The city's growth 

was due to the great religious foundation of Leofric in or shortly after 

1043. Hitherto the name of Coventry was only known in connection with 

a nunnery utterly destroyed some years previously. That there were streets 

to ride through or citizens to oppress previous to that time is more than 

a mere improbability, whilst judging by the age of her children Godiva had 

passed her fiftieth year, and beyond doubt had been a grandmother for 

some years. 



LEOFRIC OF BROMLEY. 55 



During the 14th century, when this story was invented, it was a common 
custom for burgesses and citizens to obtain from their lords charters grant- 
ing them freedom from toll in the neighbouring markets. It was not 
however until the days of Richard II. that the lines, 

I, Luryche, for love of thee 

Doe make Coventre tol free, 

were set up in a window of Trinity Church. 

The indelicate story is not peculiar to Coventry. The town of Castle St. 
Briavels, Gloucestershire, preserves a similar tradition, but that which is told 
of Coventry has grown, snow-ball like, with the telling.* Originally the 
ride was said to have been in sight of the people ; afterwards, to suit 
an altered taste, the order for closing doors and windows was added, and 
eventually in the time of Charles II., to make it perfect, a groom, changing 
to a Dane or a tailor, was introduced as losing his eyesight for infringing 
this order. To give force and reality to the story a wooden figure of St. 
George was set up in a back street to represent the peeping delinquent. 
The whole story, however, on the slightest investigation is seen to be a 
glaring imposture. 

In vain historians have exposed alike the baseness and the baselessness of 
the legend of Godiva's ride through Coventry's streets : facts are disregarded 
by writers of fiction, and since the late laureate has woven the falsehood 
into alluring language and stamped the legend with his authority, truth 
has to yield to romance, and it is a sacrilege to doubt a story which has 
stood for six centuries. 

As Earl of Mercia Leofric was the second greatest man in England. 
After 828 the rulers of Mercia were kings by deputy, but for a century 
after the death of Ethelfleda the ruling .^Idormen were appointed by the 
King, and although following former customs in their migratory and fleeting 
mode of life, alternately visiting the Royal Manors throughout their king- 
dom with a numerous train, this was gradually changing to a more settled 
mode of life. 

In Green's " Conquest of England " we have a vivid description of these 

* As a matter of fact, variants of this myth are to be found in other countries, both eastern and western. 



56 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



progresses : " We see," he says, " the king's forerunners pushing ahead of the 
train, arriving in haste at the spot destined for the next halt, broaching 
the beer barrels, setting the board, slaying and cooking the kine, baking 
the bread ; till the long company come pounding in through the muddy 
roads, horsemen and spearmen, thegn and noble, bishop and clerk, the 
string of sumpter horses, the big waggons with the royal hoard or the royal 
wardrobe, and, at last, the heavy standard borne before the king himself. 



j^HI 


■l 


■■■■ 


■ 


^^H 


^1 


^^^H 


r 


^^^^^^^^^H 


^^^^H 


^^^^^^^^^^v^^^^l 


p 


' ^^^'\ *w^J^^^^ 


|H| 


^^^^^^^p^P. ^: 






|^^«pF^ ' 


i ■ '■' 


!S 


V. -■ 




' . ' ". ":'■■ 


- ' ■■ •- 



King's bkomlev : the home of leofric. 



Then follows the rough justice-court, the hasty council, the huge banquet, 
the fires dying down into the darkness of the night, till a fresh dawn 
wake; the forerunners to seek a fresh encampment."* 



* J. R, Green : '' The Conquest of England," 'p. ^i. 



LEOFRIC OF BROMLEY. 



In its chief features the custom prevailed during the sub-rule of its 
earls, and its long survival is seen in the royal progresses of the post- 
conquest monarchs. But instead of hill camps and strongholds, rapid 
changes and forced marches, favoured spots were now fixed upon for the 
houses of the nobles, and Leofric's Staffordshire home at Bromley was 
sufficiently attractive, particularly in his declining years, to draw him from 
busier scenes and the cares of a laborious and responsible life. 

After the period of ^Ethelred and Ethelfleda's rule no other Earl of 
Mercia obtained prominence until Earl- Alfhere, who, during the reigns of 
Edgar, Edward the Martyr, and the unready Ethelred, attained considerable 
notoriety. He was much abused by the monks, but has, on the other 
hand, been called one of the best supporters of his county. Dying in 
983 he was succeeded by his son Alfric. 

Alfric, Ulfric, or Wulfric, is closely allied with Staffordshire as the founder 
of Burton Abbey. He was superseded in his high position by Edric Streon, 
probably the most accomplished villain of any age. This worthy was a 
favourite of Ethelred, whose daughter he married, and is credited with the 
murder and blinding of members of Wulfric's family, the murders of 
Morcar and Sigforth, and the overthrow of his country by carefully planned 
treason. Eventually he deserted to Canute, and ultimately effected the 
murder of King Edmund. As a fitting reward for these services he was 
put to death by Canute and his body thrown into the Thames. 

At this period (1017), Canute vested the rule of Mercia in Leofwine, an 
yElderman of the Hwiccas, and his son Leofric, and the latter speedily 
succeeded to the earldom. 

The family of Leofric, allied to the royal stock, was of great antiquity 
He is called Leofric IH., Earl of Hereford, of Leicester, and sometimes oi 
Chester, the son of Leofwine, who was the son of Algar H., the son of 
Leofric H., the son of Algar I., the son of Leofric L The name of Leuric, 
Earl of Leicester, appears as far back as 716 in one of the doubtful Charters 
of Croyland Abbey, and Algar the Thane in another of 806, whilst Algar the 
brave Earl of Lincoln, who in 806 is described in another Charter of King 
Burhred as " the most valiant Earl Algar, deservedly held most dear by 



58 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



me," and also as " the renowned Earl Algar," gave the Manor of Spalding 
to Croyland for the good of the soul of his father, Earl Algar the Elder. 

In 869 this same Earl, with his knights Wibert and Leofric, and Morcar, 
the Lord of Brunne (Bourne), did King Alfred great service in defeating 
the Danes at Kesteven, but he was subsequently slain in battle. Even at 
this early period the family was connected with Staffordshire, for Earl Algar 
was Lord of Alrewas, which, according to a very ancient record, passed at 
his death to King Alfred. 

With a descent so illustrious Leofric's wife was of stock scarcely less 
noble— that of the Thorolds of Lincolnshire, connected with the Shrievalty 
as early as 806. 

During the period of Leofric's power, 1017 to 1057, England passed 
through a series of contentions, struggles, and changes of great import. Its 
destiny was in the hands not of its kings only but of its king-makers, and 
at no subsequent period have changes so critical been effected with so little 
friction or so little spilling of blood. 

From a long record of ambition and deceit, of reckless murders and cruel 
revenges, it is pleasant to turn to the lengthened and unblemished career of 
Leofric; the few materials of his life suffice for forming a judgment of his 
capacity, wisdom, and integrity. The early historians ever mention his name 
with a laudatory prefix : he is the most illustrious, the most virtuous, the most 
renowned. Bede says " he was very wise for God and also for the world, 
which was a blessing to all the nation," " the indolence of the King 
(Edward) was redeemed by having nobles to elevate and defend him," thus 
through all changes he stands out an unselfish power, a wise counsellor, 
firm in his opposition to the ambitions of Earl Godwin, yet interceding 
for him in his misfortune. 

In works of bounty and charity he always went hand in hand with his 
wife, and the noble and richly endowed foundations of Wenlock, Stow, 
Leominster, and Coventry were their noblest monuments. 

Leofric's possessions lay in the various counties of Mercia. In all parts 
of Staffordshire, particularly in the neighbourhood of Needwood Forest, they 
were the most numerous. Cannock, Rugeley, Drayton, Elford, Chartley, 



LEOFRIC OF BROMLEY. 



59 



Uttoxeter, Tutbury, Rolleston, Barton, Alrewas, Braunston, and Bromley, 
were all estates of Saxon Kings. Most of these had probably been held 
under the over-lordship of the King, by all the ruling Earls. But that 
Bromley was the home where Leofric ended his days may possibly be due to 
some family connection of a remote period ; the adjoining Manor of Alrewas, 
as already stated, being held under King Alfred by Algar, the Earl of Lincoln, 



~r\ — V « 

ForsbrookV Praycott^ 



Checkley 



3 



»C(i»' 



-^ J-tutbUhy/ 
;t\^^ /n?Rollesls 



UTTOXETER, 

^ F 




Gratwichl 



JfsTONE 

■.'liCjBiw^Palace 



Park lip 
King-stoVi 



ll -^—-^ ) upon Trent , 

I Needwood / 



S_. Soiv 




, I' radsivcll ^ 

Mtr\\vitli Cnstle Jf/Chartfb 

I ^ \ «<?" 7 

Parli\\^„ 



cst(.>tiv<^^.::^^TAT ION 

Trent V-^-f^^c^J^^ „,, V 



■ HollyBushr\ 
.Hall V 



Hoarpross Par^K 
ABBO'TS'^BROMLEY 



Blfthfield 




Bt/rkley Lodge 

Rangemoor 

-^ C7«o- - 

,ClirLchurchT-ite"hill, 

\\| on PNeedwood 

. Barton 
ujtder Needwood^ I 

^t'HolUj '''■'^'' 
lYoxall^n'//', ., 



"^wnre 



STAFF0PD 



English Miles 
' 3 + 



rtamstain 
Park K.'-iS/i/&6oi§=^:^^^55i<S\A>'^^,> 

clCLj'rarkrp'^j!;t)y^r\^ArnutaXp.,7l,l 

Bednall%,|*''V A^i^ iJ^-j^Beaudhert P.arkJ 

W » ---"■'■■'V / ,#- j? C^"-'t;g^"' / \ I- 



)Wallon 



Basjvi€ri 



Wolselcy'i 



ira!/;€r£rlSou!aUsc. 



LE07klC S COU.MrKY : VALLEY OF THE TRENT. 



and it is noteworthy that whilst nearly all the Staffordshire estates passed 
to Leofric's son Algar, Bromley, according to the Domesday record, came 
into the hands of King Harold, evidently as a marriage portion with Algitha, 
the daughter of Algar. Hence it is probable that it was Algar's home, 
and one to which his daughter was attached, and to which she returned 
after- the tragedy which deprived her of her first husband, Griffith, King of 
Wales, and that here Harold, the future King, made her his wife. 



6o 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Although Leofric and Godiva had lavishly endowed so many monasteries, 
and according to the habit and custom of the time had specially enriched 
and beautified the great establishment at Coventry as a final resting place, 
it is in the quiet retirement of Bromley that we find their chosen home 
and see the truly English love of domestic peace which influenced their 
lives, until at last, ripe in years, honoured and revered by his countrymen, 
and troubled only by the absence of his son Hereward, the great Earl, 
statesman, soldier, and ruler passed away, the truest Englishman of his time, 
lamented by the chroniclers in words of honest praise, and his body was 
borne away for regal sepulture within the stately shrine at Coventry. 




king's BROMLEY CHURCH. 



Xaplc^ priori? ant) ita jfonnber. 




HE story of the founding of the Priory at Lapley bears a 
marked resemblance, in its main features, to that of the 
founding of the noble Hospital and Priory Church of St. 
Bartholomew the Great, in London. Like Rahere the 
jester, to whom the latter institutions owe tlieir origin, 
the founder of Lapley was on a pilgrimage to Rome 
and was lying sick in a foreign land when he was led to perform this 
act of pious munificence. In the train of English nobles who accompanied 
Aldred, Archbishop of York, when that prelate undertook his journey to 
Rome on behalf of Edward the Confessor, was Burchard, the son — probably 
the elder son — of Algar of Mercia ; and as they returned homeward through 
France, Burchard fell grievously sick of a fever, and took up his lodging 
at Rheims. Finding himself face to face with death, his mind reverted to 
his Mercian home, and out of his patrimony he made liberal grants of 
vills and farms for the endowment of a Priory of Black Friars at Lapley, 
near his home at Bromley, giving the control of the same to the Abbey 
of St. Remigius, where he doubtless lay during his illness. After having 
thus done, he besought the abbot of St. Remigius, to whose hospitality 
he was already indebted, to allow his body to be buried in the abbey 
in which he was then lodged. This request was granted, and in due 
course he was buried in the polyandrhnn of the abbey, wherein alone it was 
possible for one who was not a member of the monastery to be interred. 

Such was the origin of Lapley, and the grant thus made was ratified 
by Algar, Burchard's father, while, in addition to this endowment, Algar 



62 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



gave to the abbey of St. Remigius — doubtless in gratitude for the kindness 
his son had received there during his mortal sickness — the manors of 
Mepford (now Meaford) and Ridware, part of Hamstall Ridware, near King's 
Bromley. In Domesday these grants are duly recorded, and the story 
itself is stamped with unequivocal marks of truth. Chronology also, as 
Mr. Eyton points out in his Domesday Studies, is in support of this story, 
and " thus vouched for," he says, " the story itself helps to correct a 
hitherto defective chronology. Archbishop Aldred's return from Rome 
was in the summer of 1061, Algar, Earl of Mercia, said by the old 
genealogists to have died in 1059, has been shown by high authority (Mr. 
Freeman) to have been living much later, and probably to have died in 
1062." 

The manors given by Burchard to found the Priory comprised Marston 
and Lapley, near Penkridge. At the suppression of the alien priories by 
Henry V., the Lapley Cell or Priory was transferred to Tong, Salop, till it 
was again surrendered to the king, and was granted by Edwnrd the Sixth 
to Richard Manners, and afterwards to the Brooke family. 




I.APLEY CHURCH. 



Zbc IRorman in Staffor^0bire. 




N the period preceding England's humiliation, when commerce 
and laws, learning and religious zeal were placing the nation 
on a level with the most civilized of European countries, 
the viking and freebooter, the Pagan warriors and the 
conquerors of King Arthur's race had intermingled, and 
Jute and Angle, Saxon and Dane had become a united 
people. On the very eve of its greatest calamity, a brighter future seemed assured. 
At no previous time was England better prepared for defence. The rivalry 
between the great houses of Godwin and Leofric had ceased, and Harold, 
the chosen king, wedded to the daughter of Algar, secure in the loyalty of 
the whole country, and possessed of many kingly qualities, commenced a 
reign full of promise for England and for himself. 

Leofric's son and successor, Algar, had probably been a fighting man 
before 1039. He was made Earl of East Anglia in 1048, and succeeded to 
Mercia in 1057 ; owing, however, to various re-arranged boundaries, and the 
creation of new earldoms, this province was reduced to nearly its original limit 
of four-and-a-half centuries earlier — in other words, to Staffordshire, with some 
extensions, chiefly in Cheshire and Shropshire. His name is associated with 
all parts of Staffordshire, but particularly with the district around Bromley. 
Although the period of his death is not recorded, it took place between 
1062-65. He left three daughters — Leverunia, the second wife of Turchill 
de Arden,* the son of Ailwyn, the under-Earl of Warwick, and nephew 
of Leofric ; Algitha, who was married first to Griffith, the Welsh King, 



The descent of Shakespeare from Turchill de Arden is now generally accepted. 



64 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



and afterwards to Harold, the last English King ; and Lucy, the third 
daughter, who was disposed of in marriage by the new Norman King, in 
regard to her estates in Lincolnshire, where she may probably have retired 
with her grandmother, Godiva. Algar's three sons were Edwin, Morcar, and 
Burchard. The last-named died at Rheims on the return journey from 
Rome in 1061 ; but the two former, with their famous uncle, Hereward, 
became for some years the most prominent men in England. Algar's 
brother Hereward — Hereward the Wake, the last of the English, renowned 
in song and story — may in early life have had a close connection with 
Staffordshire, but he was absent in Flanders at the time of the Conquest, 
and it was not until after the Conquest that, by his exploits in the Fens 
of Ely, he gained for himself an undying name. 

At Algar's death, his son Edwin became the ruler of Mercia, and sub- 
sequently — three months before the death of King Edward— Morcar replaced 
Harold's brother, Tostig, who was driven from the earldom and rule of 
Northumbria, which then extended southward to Northampton. Henceforth, 
through their short but eventful lives, Edwin and Morcar were most inti- 
mately associated, like twin brothers. 

After the death of Edward the Confessor, in January, 1066, the fighting 
strength of England lay in the hands of Harold and the two brothers of 
his wife, for Harold's rule in the south was absolute ; yet it was by the 
free choice of the people that Harold became King, and, full of promise, 
commenced a reign which was destined to be at once brief and disastrous. 

As every reader of history knows, whilst William the Norman was pre- 
paring his Armada, Tostig— who, like William, had married a daughter of 
Baldwin of Flanders — was harassing the whole eastern coast of England, and 
finally landed in the Humber, but was driven back by Edwin and Morcar. 
Tostig, however, effected an alliance with the Norwegian King, who, with 
300 ships and overwhelming forces, landed near York, and on the 20th 
September defeated the hastily recruited army of the brothers. Harold had, 
by forced marches, in four days reached York, and obtained a complete 
victory on the 25th. On the 28th the Normans landed in Sussex, and the 
news reached York on the 2nd or 3rd of October. Again the exhausted 



THE NORMAN IN STAFP'ORDSHIRE. 



army of Harold was compelled to undertake forced marches, and reaching 
London, pressed onward towards the south coast. Too confident of victory 
to wait for reinforcements, Harold hazarded the battle at Senlac, near 
Hastings, on the 14th of October, in which, at the close of the day, he 
was slain by a chance arrow. 

It has never been conclusively proved whether the brothers had reached 
Sussex before the battle. It was "harvest season, and a difficult period to 
collect fighting men. It is only known that for a time they strove against 
fate, as leaders of the remnant of the Saxon army. They endeavoured to raise 
the youthful Edgar to the throne; they held London against the Normans, but 
the Bishop and Clergy opposed them. The citizens were half-hearted, and the 
history of the previous fifty years had taught the people, who suffered most 
from the almost incessant strife, that a change of dynasty was a less evil than 
further and possibly useless fighting. A successful resistance was, therefore, 
no longer possible, and the brothers retired northward, and eventually sub- 
mitted to the Normans, and with their submission the rule of the Saxon 
was at an end. 

Our chroniclers describe Edwin and Morcar as fine, handsome young men, 
and Edwin became attached to King William's daughter. The King en- 
couraged the proposed alliance for a time, and then, altering his mind, dis- 
couraged it. Edwin and Morcar left the court and aroused their vassals 
for rebellion ; but afterwards returned and were received again into favour. 

In 1069, they were still with the King at Exeter. Rebellion again broke 
out in Yorkshire, but there is no evidence of the active participation of 
the brothers therein. The King returned northward again. Then Staflford- 
shire revolted, and, having quelled the rising, he marched back, desolation 
and waste following his progress, and the estates of Edwin and Morcar in 
both counties were transferred to the King's relations and adherents. 

In 1070, Cheshire revolted, and the King built a castle at Chester, and 
another at Stafford, and Edwin's Staffordshire manors were probably now all 
forfeited, for both he and Morcar were kept at court under surveillance. 
But from this virtual imprisonment they soon afterwards escaped, and 
William's influence with them was at an end. Gathering together a force 



66 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



of English, Scotch, and Welsh adherents, they commenced a forlorn rebellion, 
of which Staffordshire was the chief battle-ground, and it is probable that 
the castle of Stafford was destroyed. Domesday records the state of waste 
to which the county was reduced. Before October, 1071, Edwin met his 
death whilst journeying to the court of Scotland. His end is as mysterious 
as his life's history. Tradition says he was killed by his own followers, but 
it is more probable that he fell a victim to the treachery of some one of 
the- Conqueror's adherents. Morcar joined his uncle Hereward in the Isle 
of Ely, and his ultimate fate is not known. 

Thierry * tells us that both brothers went to Ely ; that Morcar was per- 
suaded to quit the camp for the court, and was immediately put in irons 
in the fortress of Roger de Beaumont in Normandy, and that Edwin also 
left the camp to seek the deliverance of his country, but was sold to the 
Normans by two traitors ; that with twenty knights he defended himself 
against overwhelming forces, and that his enemies cut off his head and 
carried it to the King, who wept over his fate as of a man he loved. 

The ancient domains of the family of Algar and of Thorold about 
Spalding passed to Lucy, the sister of Edwin and Morcar, and were after- 
wards given by the Conqueror to his nephew, Ivo Taillebois the Angevin. 

The estates of the Mercian earls in various shires were speedily distributed 
among the land-hungering followers of the Conqueror. Many a Midland 
baron got for his share an estate which for ages was the upholding of his 
rank. Royal vills became the possessions of the hangers-on of William the 
Norman and his barons, and the old bond of attachment between the lord 
and the tiller of the soil was rudely sundered. 

In Staffordshire, with the exception of the very extensive church and 
abbey lands connected with Lichfield, Burton, and Hampton, the numerous 
holdings of thanes and freemen, and a few royal manors belonging to the 
Saxon Kings, all the remaining manors were held by Earl Edwin until his 
forfeiture in 1069-70, although the names of Leofric, Godiva, and Algar are 
variously entered as former owners. 

The changes in connection with the Church lands effected by the Conquest 

* "Norman Conquest," 1071. 



THE NORMAN IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 67 

(or by the events intervening before the compiling of Domesday, 1085-6) 
were unimportant. Not so, however, with regard to those of the thanes, 
who in great part were doubtless holders under the Mercian earls or the 
Countess Godiva. 

As to two-thirds of the town of StafTord, and the Lordships of Wednesbury, 
Wahall, Bescot, Willenhall, Bilston, Tettenhall, Trentham, and Penkridge, 
over all of which Harold became lord in succession to Edward the Con- 
fessor, William was entered as owner in succession to Edward ; * but in 
the case of Bromley, to which Harold was entitled in right of his wife 
Algitha, William's name appears as successor to the former owner Harold, 
and hereafter Bromley takes the name of King's Bromley. 

Of the estates which had passed from Leofric to Algar, and from Algar 
to Edwin, and became forfeited in 1069-70, one-third of the town of Stafford, 
the Manors of Alrewas, Sandon, Chartley, Wolstanton, Penkhull, Rocester, 
Crakemarsh, Uttoxeter, Barton-under-Needwood, Leek, Rugeley, Mayfield, 
Meertown, Cannock, Elford, Kinver, Pattingham, Clifton, Drayton (Basset), 
Hopwas, and Harlaston, were retained by the king for sixteen years, until 
the date of Domesday survey, but considerable re-arrangement was effected 
shortly after that period. 

The largest grantee of lands in the county was Robert de Stafford, a 
possessory name taken by Robert Toni, the son of Roger de Toni, the 
standard bearer of Normandy, who was slain in battle in 1042. This large 
concession of territory included the county town of Stafford, the castle 
whereof was then destroyed by William, as previously stated. 

When in March, 1067, Earls Edwin and Morcar went in company with 
the new King to Normandy, they were accompanied on their return home 
in the December following by Roger de Montgomery, afterwards made 
Earl of Shrewsbury. To this Roger passed many of the estates and manors 
which had been held by Saxon thanes and freemen, together with four 
of the estates of the Mercian earls in Seisdon Hundred, one in Culveston, 
one belonging to the Countess Godiva in Pirehill. Hugh, the son of 

* It was the policy of the compilers of Domesday to ignore Harold altogether ; hence former holders of the 
land were given as "t. r. E.," in the time of King Edward; if they had only held during Harold's time they 
were s^id to have held " in the time that Edward the king was alive and dead." 



68 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Roger de Mongomery, possessed, according to Domesday, one manor of the 
Mercian earls, viz., Worfield, and this manor controlled the five burgages 
of the earls in Stafford. 




R. Ki 



Burton-on- Trent 



ROLLESTON. 



Edwin's title of Earl of Chester was bestowed upon Hugh de Avranches, 
but it is difficult to trace to what extent he participated in the Stafford- 
shire estates, from the fact that, before the date of the Domesday survey, 
he had been succeeded by Henry de Ferrers, who had fcught in the 
battle of Senlac (or Hastings), and afterwards acted as one of the Domesday 
Commissioners in Worcestershire. The latter held many of the estates of 
Earl Edwin, including Tutbury and its castle, and made this his principal 
seat, and he had succeeded to many surrounding manors, among which 



THE NORMAN IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 



69 



Rolleston is worthy of special mention, as being the only estate formerly 
held by Earl Morcar, and the only one in the county having a female 
serf. 

Among other Norman successors to the estates of the Saxon lords we 
should not omit to mention William Fitz-Ansculf (or Ausculf) who succeeded 
to four estates of the Countess Godiva and to two of Algar ; and Chenuin, 
probably the Richard Cheven to whom the Conqueror gave lands in 
Chesterton and elsewhere for his services as keeper of the forest of Cannock 
(who is elsewhere known as Richard the Forester, and held ten estates in 
Staffordshire) ; there were also others whose names became intimately 
associated with the later history of the county upon whose waste and 
plunder their own fortunes arose. 




C. E. Weale, 



TAMWORTH CASTLE. 



7 amivorth. 



''ITamwortb ^ower anb (Town," 
anb its Borman Xorbe. 

URING the century-and-a-half which elapsed between the 
death of Ethelfleda and the Norman Conquest, Tamworth 
Castle, which still continued to be one of the residences 
of the Saxon lords, was the scene of several stirring 
events in the history of Mercia. It was the scene of 
the meeting between Athelstan and Sihtric, the Danish 
king of Northumbria, in 925, when a treaty of peace was signed between 
them, and Athelstan gave his sister Eadgith in marriage to the Dane. 
The peace was of a short duration, however. Sihtric died a few years 




"tamworth tower and town." 71 

afterwards, and in 943, Anlaf, or Olaf, his son, who had already been 
settled in Northumbria, made war upon Edmund the Elder, Athelstan's 
brother and successor in the kingdom of Mercia, and the Viking hosts 
poured down upon Mercia, laying siege to Tamworth and Leicester, in 
order to gain control of the Trent Valley. The swarm of mail-clad 
berserkers stormed the fortress-crowned hill at Tamworth, and captured it 
with great slaughter, making a prisoner of Wulfrun, who was, probably, 
governor of the castle. 

Tamworth remained in the hands of the Danes until the death of Anlaf, 
about a year afterwards, when it passed back into the control of the boy- 
king, Edmund. It remained a royal town until the Norman Conquest, 
when '* Tamworth tower and town " became the possession of one of the 
most powerful of the Norman barons, the steward of the Conqueror himself, 
who is known to us from the Domesday survey and other records as 
Robert Dispensator, or Robert le Despencer. There are many points of 
coincidence which would lead us to identify Robert le Despencer with 
Robert Marmion, the lord of Fontenay, who had distinguished himself in 
the battle of Hastings. In the first place there was, according to Dugdale, 
a legend and device in the stained-glass window at the east end of 
Tamworth Church, depicting and recording the circumstance of the grant of 
Tamworth Castle to the lord of Fontenay ; * secondly, out of the forty 
places set down in Domesday as belonging to Robert le Despencer, the 
great proportion were afterwards in the possession of the Marmion family ; 
thirdly, in the Roll of Battle Abbey, the name of Marmion is frequently 
coupled with the style of " the Despencer." 

There is, moreover, a curious legend, which Dugdale found in a " very 
old" parchment, in the possession of the Ferrers family, at Tamworth 
Castle, which tells in quaint, homely, Saxon phraseology, how the Conqueror 
"gave .... to Sir Robert Marmyon the castyll of Tomworth and the 
forren londys without, and the town of Tomworth that was in the tyme 
of the Conquest a wolrich at the watur wend ; " and how the said Robert 
Marmion chased away the Abbess Osith and all the nuns of the Abbey of 

* This device is reproduced from Dugdale on p. 73. 



72 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Polesworth, which had been founded by " King Egbryght," and given to his 
daughter, " sent Edyth." The legend goes on to tell of a vision with 
which Marmion was favoured after this exploit ; how the spirit of the 
deceased St. Editha appeared before him, and demanded the restitution of 
the lands which her father, Ecgberht, had given to her, threatening him 
with the pains of hell if he refused her request. And lest he should forget 
or make light of her request, she smote him in the side with the point of 
her cross, so that he woke with a fearful cry and a wound in his side "as 
if hee had byn at a mortall batyll." This wound gave him no rest until 
he had fulfilled the saint's behest, restored the Abbey of Polesworth, and 
brought back the ladies from Oldbury, where they had been in retreat. 

The historian of Tamworth, Mr. C. F. Palmer, however, discredits this 
legend, the manuscript of which has long been lost, and points out that the 
foundation of the Abbey of Polesworth is set down by the most trustworthy 
annalists to Ethelwulf, King of Wessex, and that the nuns were not restored 
to Polesworth until the reign of Stephen ; and all the best authorities 
decline to accept the statement that Tamworth was given by the Conqueror 
to Robert Marmion, or the theory of identity of the latter with Robert le 
Despencer. It is possible, therefore, that "Tamworth tower and town" did not 
come into the possession of the Marmion family until the beginning of the 
reign of Henry I., when the Despencer, having fallen under the displeasure 
of the King, forfeited his estates, and they were given by Henry to Sir 
Roger Marmion, a kinsman of the man who had thus fallen into disgrace. 

It was the successor of this Roger, Sir Robert Marmion, who brought 
back the nuns to Polesworth Abbey, in or about the year 1139. Sir Robert 
Marmion was one of the staunchest supporters of Stephen against the claims 
of the Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I., to the throne of England ; 
and when Stephen was made prisoner at Lincoln, February 2nd, 1141, and 
Matilda declared herself "Lady of England and Normandy," she gave the 
town and castle of Tamworth to one of her adherents. Sir William de 
Beauchamp. Sir Robert Marmion, however, remained faithful to the unfor- 
tunate King, and fought desperately on his behalf, attacking the Earl of 
Chester (a partisan of Matilda) at Coventry. For this purpose Marmion had 



TAMWORTH TOWER AND TOWN. 



73 



gathered together a lawless band, and marched from Tamworth to Coventry, 
and having dispossessed the monks of the Benedictine priory there, he 
made a castle of their church. He also carried into execution a piece of 




bir pf ^^illiflraum Cen<jtt«<t9rem R«b«rfu# fllni-mun Ucmintt* Ci^dAU t(\ni,itup. 



GRANT OF TAMWORTH CASTLE TO THE LORD OF FONTENAY, 
From a device formerly in the east window of Tamworth Church. (See p 71. 



strategy which recoiled fatally upon himself. He caused a number of deep 
ditches to be dug in the outskirts of the city, and lightly covered them 
over with earth, in order to entrap the Earl's troops ; but in the heat of 
the conflict which took place near his monastic fortress on the 8th of 



74 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



September, 1143, his horse plunged into one of the pits which he had 
digged for his foes, and he fell from his saddle and broke his thigh. As 
he lay, enmeshed in his own toils, a cobbler ran up and despatched him 
with a knife. He was buried in unconsecrated ground, in the orchard 
belonging to the nunnery which he had restored at Polesworth. 

The castle of Tamworth was restored to Sir Robert Marmion's son by 
Stephen, after the insurrection of the Empress Matilda had been quelled ; 
but there is little to detain us in the life of the younger Robert, the 
fourth baron of Tamworth. His son, Robert, the fifth baron, is bettei 
known, however. He was one of the justiciaries, or itinerant justices, 
appointed by Henry 11., to whom were committed the administration of 
criminal law and the assessment of various taxes. He served as SheriflF of 
Worcestershire in 1186, and was justiciary for various Midland Counties 
between 11 87 and 11 94. He was one of those who took the vow for the 
crusade with Richard Coeur de Leon, but purchased exemption from this 
service by gifts to the monastery of Barberay and the monks of Thame. 
His third son, William, entered the church, and became Dean of Tamworth. 
In later life the justiciary fell under the displeasure of his sovereign, the 
weak and fickle King John, owing to his having joined the cause of the 
barons, and thus is numbered among those to whom we owe the Great 
Charter. For the part he had taken in this memorable struggle he was 
called upon to forfeit certain of his lands, and in the December of 12 15 — 
the year which was signalised by the granting of Magna Charta — the king 
ordered Thomas de Erdington, the sheriff of Staffordshire and Salop, to 
proceed with some of the royal forces to Tamworth Castle, and to level the 
stronghold of Sir Robert Marmion to the ground. In this, however, the sheriff 
and his forces had to reckon with the baron's supporters in his own town, and 
the men of Tamworth turned the tables on the despoilers by besieging them 
in the castle, and starving them into a more conciliatory frame of mind. 

Only two other representatives of the Marmion family in the male line 
held Tamworth Castle, namely Robert, the son of the justiciary, who suc- 
ceeded his father in or about 1218, and his son Philip, the last English 
baron of the elder branch of the Marmions. It is probable that Philip was 



"tamworth tower and town.'' 75 

the only representative of his line who filled the office with which the 
name of Marmion is associated in popular tradition, — that of royal champion 
at the coronation of the English sovereign. The manor of Scrivelsby is 
said to have been held by the Marmions in virtue of this service, but this 
rests entirely upon tradition, and the tradition is probably based upon the 
solitary mention of the office in a writ of 23 Edward III. (1349) where it 
is stated that the holder of the manor of Scrivelsby was accustomed to 
perform this service. It may, therefore, with little hesitation be assumed 
that Philip Marmion, who was the ancestor of the Dymokes of Scrivelsby, 
served the office of king's champion at the coronation of Edward III. 
This relic of mediaeval pageantry has since been associated with the Dymoke 
family, and was performed for the last time by Henry Dymoke at the 
coronation of George the Fourth on the 19th of July, 1821, when the 
champion rode up Westminster Hall in great state, accompanied by the 
Duke of Wellington and Lord Howard of Effingham. 

On the death of Philip Marmion, which occurred in 1291, the Castle of 
Tamworth passed to his eldest daughter, Jane, the widow of William 
Morteyn, and she dying childless in 1295, was succeeded by her niece, Jane, 
daughter of Philip Marmion's second daughter, and wife of Alexander de 
Freville. The Castle thence became the inheritance of the Frevilles, and 
subsequently of the Ferrers family, but with these later stages of its 
history we do not propose to speak here. 

During the lordship of the Marmion family the ensign, which through so 
many years of storm and stress floated proudly from the top of the grim 
old fortress, gave place on several occasions to the "lion flag of England." 
It is not improbable, indeed, that all the three " illustrious Henries," under 
whom the Marmions lived, paid visits to the powerful barons at their 
castle in Tamworth. Henry I., we know, came hither between 1109 and 
1 1 16, and while at Tamworth granted to Godwin a monk of the Abbey 
of St, Remigius at Rheims, the right to the church of Lapley, in Stafford- 
shire, and dated his writ to this effect at Tamworth. He had with him 
a goodly retinue on this visit, for the writ was witnessed by Robert 
Bloet, Bishop of Lincoln ; Roger, Bishop of Salisbury ; William Walrewast, 



76 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Bishop of Exeter ; Geoffrey Ridell and Alured de Lincoln. Henry I. 
probably came again to Tamworth between the death of Roger Marmion, in 
1 129 and 1 133, as he was at Cannock, and granted free warren to Sir Robert 
Marmion in all his land in Warwickshire, in wood and plain, and as the 
historian of the Marmion family has said, " The wild woodlands and chases 
around Tamworth, abounding in game for the favourite pastime of king and 
nobles, might wtll suggest the return for the hospitality of the new baron." 

Henry II., the first of the Plantagenets, came to Tamworth during the 
lordship of the fourth baron, Robert, the father of the justiciary. Sir 
Robert Marmion had been with the king at Shrewsbury, at the end of 
the winter of 11 57-8, and witnessed a grant made by Henry to the monks 
of Haughmond ; and he seems to have attended the king on his royal 
progress from Shrewsbury, through Bridgnorth to Tamworth. Henry was 
attended by a still more famous retinue than the first Henry had brought 
with him, for among those who were guests of the Lord of Tamworth 
Castle on this occasion was the great Thomas a Becket, though not yet 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and with him his predecessor in the primacy, 
Archbishop Theobald, William, Bishop of Chester, Roger, Earl of Hereford, 
Joscelyn de Balliol, and other nobles. 

If Henry III. visited Tamworth it must have been during the royal pro- 
gress which he made in 1257 from Coventry to Lichfield. It is probable, 
as Mr. Palmer suggests, that the last of the barons of Tamworth, Sir 
Philip Marmion, welcomed the King into his castle during this progress, as 
he accompanied the King on his march from the Midlands into Wales, to 
quell the rebellion which Llewelynn ap Griffith had raised in that part of 
the King's dominions. If so this was the last royal visit to Tamworth for 
many a year. One who was on the eve of his accession to the throne 
came hither, as we shall see in a future chapter, but not as a guest 
within the walls of Tamworth Castle. " Tamworth Tower and Town " had 
by this time played its part in the history of the country, it was hence- 
forth to occupy a less important place among the English towns. 

Probably as far back as Offa's time Tamworth had enjoyed, with other 
royal vills, the privileges of coining, and some examples of the local mint 



'TAMWORTH TOWER AND TOWN. 



77 



have come down to us, of which we give facsimiles. Previous to the time 
of Athelstan it was not usual to inscribe on the coin the name of the 
" moneyer," or the place of issue, but of later coinage Pitt records, in his 
" History of Staffordshire," an example of the time of Canute having on 
the reverse the inscription " Edric on Tam.," that is, ** Edric, Moneyer, in 
Tamworth." We give engravings of three specimens of the Tamworth 
mint. The first represents the obverse and reverse of a silver penny of 
the time of Edward the Confessor, 





with the signature of Pruning as the " moneyer," by whom it was coined, 
in the same form as in the recorded specimen of Edric, viz., Prvning on 
Tam. 

The second engraving is that of a silver penny of William the Conqueror, 
the work of the same mint-master. 





The third example presents a profile portrait of William I. or IT., and is also 
issued by Pruning. It will be noticed that in this case the abbreviation of 
the name of Tamworth varies, the inscription being Prvnig on Tampr. 





The royal mint of Tamworth continued in activity until the time of 
Henry I., in whose reign it was discontinued, 




REMAINS OF THE ABBEY, DIEU-LA-CRES. 




lEarl 1Ranulpb'6 Bbbei? of the flDooiianbe. 

HE inglorious reign of King John had come to an end, 

and his youthful son had been firmly seated on the throne ; 

Louis had been driven away never to return, and many 

of the Barons after their long and bitter strife, sought for 

change in a journey to the Holy Land. Foremost among 

these was Ranulph, Earl of Chester, the great grandson 

of Lucy, the daughter of Algar the Saxon, and upon returning to his home 

in Staffordshire, in 1221, he founded in that year the Cistercian Abbey, 

which he named Dieu-la-cres. 

The vale, through which ran the Upper Churnet — now a mere streamlet 
— surrounded by wood and water, lofty hills and wild moorland, was an 
ideal site for the foundation, and in the beauty and seclusion of its position 
f^w of our old religious houses were more favoured. Little now remains 



LORD RANULPH's ABBEY OF THE MOORLANDS. 79 

of the once stately and wealthy Abbey rich in its traditions and interest- 
ing from its early historic connection ; but nestling away in the bosom of a 
lovely pastoral valley, the little that remains of its former greatness is 
deeply impressive. 

The chequered career of the thrice-married Lucy, Countess of Lincoln 
and of Chester, whtHfe early life is connected with our shire, is one of 
unusual interest. Heiress to the house she was given by the Conqueror 
with her great estates in Lincolnshire to Ivo Taillebois, the Norman, a 
nephew of the king, a man who in all ages, in song and story, has been 
held up to detestation as a type of the hated Norman oppressor, and 
whose character has been vigorously portrayed in Kingsley's " Hereward the 
Wake." 

After the death of this worthy the king wedded her to the Lord of 
Bolingbroke, Gerald de Romare, probably about 1090. A son, William, a 
valiant soldier at home and abroad, who became Earl of Lincoln, was the 
result of this marriage. Again left a widow she was a third time disposed 
of and married Ranulph de Meschines, a Norman Baron, of Cumberland 
and Carlisle, where presumably she held some of her brother Morcar's 
lands. 

Long afterwards, 1119, Ranulph became Earl of Chester, and resigned these 
lands to Henry I. William de Romare subsequently claimed them as his 
mother's inheritance, being refused he raised the standard of rebellion and 
retired to Normandy, but in two years was reconciled and compensated. 

The history of the Earls of Chester is inseparable from that of our 
county. Upon the forfeiture of Earl Edwin, 1070, one Gherbod, of Flanders, 
stepson of the Conqueror, was made Earl, the same year he returned over 
the water and never came back, and the king's nephew, Hugh de Avranches 
eke named the "Wolf," and eke the "Fat," had the title and lands to hold 
by the sword. 

Hugh, the "Wolf," left one legitimate son, Richard, born 1094. He 
married a sister of King Stephen, but in 11 19, crossing from Barfleur 
with the Royal princes, William and Richard, their tutor Ottiwel (natural, 
brother of Earl Richard), Geffrey Ridel (the Earl's brother-in-law), and 



8o HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



140 young noblemen, their vessel the "White Ship" was wrecked and all 
were lost. 

This disaster ended the line of Hugh Lupus; Ranulph de Meschines, 
Hugh's nephew, the third husband of Lucy the Saxon, succeeded him. 
Both the Earl and Countess must have attained an advanced age ; Ranulph 
died 1 128, and his widow is said to have paid King Stephen 500 marks to 
avoid a fourth marriage. If this be true she must have lived until 113S, 
when past her eightieth year. 

The eldest of four children, Ranulph, born in Normandy, succeeded his 
father. With his half-brother, William de Romare, he was closely associated 
in various achievements during the wars of Stephen and Maud, particularly 
in the capture of Stephen at Lincoln. 

Ranulph married Maud, daughter of the famous Robert, Earl of Gloucester, 
and grand-daughter of Henry I. His eventful life closed in 1153, when it 
is said he was poisoned by William Peverell. 

Previous to 1086 the Conqueror had found it convenient to transfer the 
Staffordshire estates to various other Norman followers. During the lives of 
Ranulph and Lucy and their son, many of the Staffordshire manors were 
recovered, the whole neighbourhood of Leek being one of the earliest. 

Before the death of Ranulph the son, the Plantagenet Duke, afterwards 
Henry II., had made him a grant, which had it become operative would 
have given him nearly the whole of the Staffordshire estates formerly 
belonging to his mother's family.* 

Hugh (surnamed Keveliok), son of Ranulph, had the earldom nearly 
thirty years, spent partly in rebellion, partly in prison. He died in 1180-81, 
at Swythamley, near Leek,t his partiality for which place as a hunting 
seat was evidently shared by the other Earls, for there his son, Ranulph, 
the succeeding Earl, founded the Cistercian Abbey, Dieu-la-cres, on a 
spot where a Chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin had been placed by 
one of his ancestors. 

• Particulars of the efforts made by Earl Ranulph to acquire the Staffordshire estates will be found in " The 
Liber Niger Scaccarii," by Col. the Hon. G. Wrottesley, Salt Collections, Vol. i, p. 230. 

t Near the base of the very ancient runic Cross in Leek Parish Churchyard, a stone has been found bear- 
ing the inscription H.Q.C.C. (Hugo, quintus Comes Cestrince.) n8o. 



EARL RANULPh's ABBEY OF THE MOORLANDS. 



8l 



Earl Ranulph, the founder, was small in stature, yet withal a most 
valiant soldier. He was knighted 1188 by Henry II., married Constance, 
the widow of Geoffrey Plantagenet and mother of the ill-fated Prince 
Arthur, and was the companion in arms of Richard Coeur de Lion both 
at home and in Normandy, and subsequently in the Holy Land ; he was 




ANCIENT RELICS FOUND NEAR SWYTHAMLEY. 



also a supporter of King John during his reign. He divorced his wife 
Constance by reason, says Dugdale, that King John haunted her company. 
He afterwards, according to an old monk of Peterborough, was the chief 
instrument in the succession of Henry III., receiving as a reward for his 



82 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



services the Earldom of Lincoln, which curiously he claimed in right of 
his great-grandmother, the Countess Lucy. 

His second wife, Clementina, the young and wealthy widow of Alan de 
Dinant, was the Countess connected with the oft-told story of the founding 
of the Abbey. Few religious houses were without a story of monkish origin, 
attributing the founding of their Abbey to a miracle, but the story of the 
monks of Dieu-la-cres is within the limit of probability, if we rightly 
regard the ghostly admonition as a dream. After retiring to bed, so runs 
the story, the spirit of his grandfather (presumedly his paternal grandsire, Earl 
Ranulph) appeared to him and bade him repair to a place called Cholpes- 
dale near unto Leek, and there found and endow an Abbey of White 
Monks, with various minute directions and prophecies which very accurately 
accord with the future history of the Abbey, and upon relating his 
vision to his wife next morning — she exclaimed, " Deu encres," or God 
increase the pious resolve of her lord, whereupon pleased with the ex- 
pression he caused the Abbey to be so named. A more reasonable 
account of the foundation is given by Robert Fabian, the London 
Chronicler, temp. Henry VIL 

"122 1. This year came out of the Holy Land into Englande, Ranulphe, erle of Chester, 
and beganne to buylde the Castellys of Charteley and of Bestone, and after he buylded ye 
Abbey of De lacresse of ye whyte ordere, for charge and cost of whiche sayd Castellys and 
Abbay he toke toll through all his lordshippes of all suche as passyd that way with any 
chaffr'e or marchaundyse." 

During the 50 years he was Earl, Ranulph was the close ally of four 
kings, his life was full of interest and activity until its close ; he died 
childless in 1231. 

The possessions of the Abbey were of considerable extent, a great part 
had at the date of Domesday Survey been returned as waste ; such names 
as Wild Boar Clough, Elkstone, Wolfdale, Wolflow, Boarsley, &c., &c., are 
indicative of their character. The whole neighbourhood of Swythamley has 
great and varied charms ; and whilst the High Forest, Ludchurch and Meal 
Ark Clough, the Roches and the High Clouds strike the visitor with 
wonder, language scarcely suffices to do justice to the beauty of the scenery 
around the valley of the picturesque Dane. 



EARL RANULPH S ABBEY OF THE MOORLANDS. 



83 



There are yet considerable survivals of the ancient Forest of Leek and 
Swythamley, — traditionally the resort of Robin Hood, and the Back Forest 
and High Forest, with the surrounding wilds stretching away into Cheshire 







ff. ff. Home, 



Leek. 



THE DUNGE FALLS, UPPER HULME, 



and Derbyshire, yet attest the facilities the district afforded the Abbots of 
old in fishing, hawking, and the chase. Even at the present day the red 



84 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



grouse is abundant, and whilst never found in England further south than 
North Staffordshire, the hills or mountains and the stretches of heather are 
likely to attract the birds in their present plenitude for a long time to 
come. 

A free warren was granted to the Abbot by Edward I.* but reservation 
was made within the limits of Macclesfield Forest. This, however, did not 
restrain the sporting proclivities of the monks, who were brought to book 
for taking stags with their hounds and carrying them to the Abbey ; in 
this, however, they but followed a custom common to all the religious 
houses of their time. 




THE ANCIENT MANORIAL COURT ROOM, SWYTHAMLEY. 



The last Abbot of Dieu-la-cres was Lord Thomas Whitney. He is chiefly 
noted for having provided himself in anticipation of the approaching dissolu- 
tion with various blank parchments with the Abbey seal affixed, upon which 
he subsequently had several ante-dated leases prepared. 

After the dissolution the grange and park of Swythamley, with the forest 
and keeper's house, were granted to WilHam Trafford, Esq., (a name to be 

* This Grant is still in the possession of P. L. Brocklehurst, Esq., of Swythamley. 



EARL RANULPh's ABBEY OF THE MOORLANDS. 



again referred to hereafter) from whom the present owner is descended. 
The Abbey passed to Sir Ralph Bagenholt, and in 1597 to Thomas 
Rudyard, of Rudyard, of a Saxon family located at Rudyard in the time 
of Canute ; in 1684 the ruins, with Leek Leekfrith and Rudyard Manors, 
passed to William Trafford, Esq. ; and in the early part of the present 
century an Abbey of French Nuns occupied part of the site. 

Few parallel instances of long continued ownership of so considerable a 
tract of country in one family exist in the kingdom. The present Lord 
of the Manor, P. L. Brocklehurst, Esq., until recent times, held his Manorial 
Court Leet and Baron, thus preserving many of the usages according to 
ancient custom which had probably existed before the Earls of Chester 
succeeded to the ownership of the districts around Swythamley. 



^be Iknigbts ^emplare in Staffor&£bire, anb tbe 
©vertbrow of tbeir Qvbcw 




HE fact that the Knights Templars had a house within the 
County of Stafford, — at Keele, about a mile from New- 
castle* — gives local interest to the strange story of the 
suppression of that Order in the reign of Edward II. 

By the end of the thirteenth century the Order of 
Knight Templars had become an anachronism. They no 
longer fared forth to the destruction of Paladin and Saracen ; after the 
fall of Acre the Holy Land from end to end was in the hands of the 
followers of Mahomet ; the members of this Order, half warrior, half priest, 
had accumulated great riches, and their frequent quarrels with the kindred 
Order of Knights Hospitallers had become a grievous scandal. Yet they 
still held what seemed an unassailable position, when, as by a bolt out of 
the blue, the Order was broken up, its vast resources were seized, and the 
great organization scattered into nothingness. 

With the dawn of the fourteenth century strange rumours began to be 
prevalent as to the half Pagan rites practised within the Templars' strong- 

* " Fres militie Templi tencnt, Kel, membrum Novi Castri de dono D'ni Reg. H. et nichil reddunt." — Testa 
de Nevill. 

Many references to this Preceptory of the Knights Templars at Keele are to be found in the Pipe Rolls, and 
other State records. In the Assize Rolls of 55 Henry III., taken at Wolverhampton, an action was heard 
against " Imbert, the Master of the Knights Templars in England, Roger de Boniton, the Preceptor of Kel 
(Keele), and six others, by Geoffrey Griffin, the plaintiff affirming that the Templars had thrown down a fence in 
Clayton, to the injury of the free tenement, and that thereby cattle had obtained entry into the plaintiff's field 
and trampled down his corn. A verdict was given for the plaintiff." On a later occasion (10 Edward I.) the 
Master of the Knights Templars in England was a plaintiff in a similar case, suing Richard de Bromley for 
depasturing cattle " on the growing corn of the Knights at Kel," and doing damage to the value of 100 shillings. 
There is ground for believing that the Knights Templars also had a house at Burton. 



THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 87 

holds, and it was openly declared that the Knights themselves had abjured 
the faith of Christianity, and had become, in secret, followers of Mahomet. 
Doubtless the thought of the great wealth which had been accumulated by 
the Order in France induced Philip le Bel, the French king, to make use 
of these rumours as a ground for the persecution and suppression of the 
Order — which he carried out with the most cruel ferocity, and thereby 
greatly enriched himself and his followers. Mainly through the influence of 
that monarch, Edward II. was induced to execute similar ordinances 
against the Knights Templars in England. No tortures seem to have been 
brought to bear upon the Templars during the form of investigation which 
was undertaken in England, but the Order was promptly doomed to 
immediate extinction throughout the land. In Staffordshire the Sheriff was 
ordered to be at Lichfield early in the morning of the morrow of the 
Epiphany in 1308, with a trusty band of fourteen men, and there they 
remained in readiness in obedience to the mandate, awaiting further in- 
structions. Five days later a secret missive came to the Sheriff, directing 
him to arrest all members of the Order of Knights Templars then living 
within the county, and to seize their property, writings, and chattels. The 
preceptory at Keele which belonged to the Order was thereupon seized and 
the Templars were scattered. Some joined the Monastic Orders, others 
went back into the world, and to their families, and not a few, as Mr. 
Froude says, " offered their swords and services to secular princes, having 
had enough of the Church." Thus the great and powerful order of warrior 
priests which had struck terror into the hearts of the Saracens, had over- 
awed kings, and had dazzled all Christendom with their matchless prowess, 
crumbled to pieces in an hour, at the bidding of an avaricious monarch 
and his all too willing tools. But underneath the external causes of the 
extinction of the Order must be recognised the great cause without which 
the machinations of Pope and King would have availed nothing. The 
Order of Knights Templars had accomplised its work and had outlasted its 
day ; hence the hour had struck for its overthrow. Only the touch of 
external circumstances was needed to cause the empty husk whose kernel 
had already perished to crumble to dust. 




Zbc Catbebral Built)er0: 
IRogcr t)e Clinton anb Malter Xangton. 

HE noble fabric of Lichfield Cathedral, reared during the 
greatest period of English architecture, owes its existence 
to the energies of several of the more notable of the 
mediaeval bishops. Of the building which Roger de Clinton 
(Bishop from 1128 to 115 3) erected in place of the ancient 
Mercian church which he had taken down, probably little 
remained in the finished cathedral of the fourteenth century ; yet the great 
work which this munificent ecclesiastic accomplished for Lichfield cannot be 
passed over in silence. He found Lichfield a miserable village, its episcopate 
a heritage of poverty and abstinence, and its cathedral a humble Saxon 
church, and he left it a fortified city, with a new cathedral and an enriched 
episcopate ; he is also said to have appointed the first canons, and to have 
increased the number of prebendaries. The main body of the present 
cathedral was probably erected during the middle portion of the thirteenth 
century. Probably the work of rebuilding was begun with the substitution 
of new transepts for their Norman predecessors about 1220 ; and the erection 
of the present nave dates from about 1250. For the rebuilding of the 
cathedral King Henry IIL, in 1235, granted to the dean and chapter a 
license to dig stone out of the Forest of Hopwas, which then extended 
almost to Lichfield ; and the place from which this material was excavated 
is still known by the name of Quarry Hills. 



THE CATHEDRAL BUILDERS. 



89 



Thus, bit by bit, the fair cathedral, the perfect fiower of mediaeval art, 
arose out of the ruins of the simpler and more austere fabric which had 
been reared by Roger de Clinton ; but the culminating features, the exquisite 
lady-chapel and the unique crown of the triple spires belong to the episco- 
pate of Walter Langton, — the most notable of the mediaeval bishops of 
Lichfield — and to that of his successor, Roger de Norbury. 




LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SOUTH. 



The story of Walter Langton, who has been styled the second founder 
of the cathedral, is one which cannot well be omitted from a series of 
historic studies of the County of Stafford. He was, it is said, a native of 
Langton, near Market Harborough, and was a nephew of William Langton, 
Dean of York. He began life as a poor man, but having become a clerk 



9© HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



in the King's chancery, he appears at an early period of his career to have 
gained the favour of the King, Edward I. In 1290, he was clerk, or, as 
he is otherwise described, treasurer, of the King's wardrobe, and had already 
become a man of substance, if not of affluence, as in that year he obtained 
license to impark his wood at Ashley, and a grant of twelve adjoining 
acres in the forest of Rockingham. For a short period he was even 
custodian of the great seal, between the death of his patron. Bishop 
Burnell, and the appointment of his namesake, John Langton, to the 
Chancellorship. 

During the greater part of his career, however, he held the important 
post of Lord High Treasurer of England, and earned for himself the 
respect of good men by his firm discipline, which was exercised impartially 
toward prince and peasant. He fearlessly censured the Prince of Wales (after- 
wards Edward II.) for his extravagance, and in retaliation the prince broke 
into his park and killed his deer. The King espoused the cause of his 
treasurer, and thus sowed the seed of long and bitter hatred between the 
future Edward II. and Langton. 

Walter Langton was elected to the See of Lichfield in 1297, and he was 
consecrated by Cardinal De Goth, one of the papal legates, on the 23rd of 
December in the same year. He still retained the office of treasurer, and 
although the shafts of malicious slander were aimed at him, and led to his 
temporary suspension from his sacred office, the King still reposed the 
firmest confidence in him, and Archbishop Winchelsea, after a long investi- 
gation, was forced to declare his innocency of the charges which had been 
brought against him. Edward further testified his conviction of Langton's 
trustworthiness by making him the chief executor of his will ; and we find 
him entrusted with various important commissions and negotiations. For 
instance, he was sent with the Earl of Lincoln and Hugh Le Despenser on 
an embassy to the new Pope, Clement V., and was present at Clement's 
coronation ; he was appointed joint-warden of the realm with the Archbishop 
of York during the King's absence in Scotland-, in 1306, and was deputed 
by Edward to open the parliament at Carlisle. He was indeed the chief 
confidant of the King, and virtually his first minister. He was probably 



THE CATHEDRAL BUILDERS. 



91 



present at Edward's death, and accompanied the mournful cortege on its 
progress from the Scottish border to Waltham, 

And now began Langton's real troubles. The hatred of the new King 
for his father's treasurer was only equalled by that entertained towards 



"^. 






'■M$: 















THE LADV CHAPEL, LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL. 



Langton by the King's favourite, Piers Gaveston ; and the latter returning 
from exile, added fuel to the fire of Edward's enmity, so that he caused 
Langton to be arrested, while he was in the act of arranging for the 



92 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



funeral of his royal master at Westminster. He was thrown into the Tower, 
removed from the treasurership, and despoiled of his lands by the King. 
A vast hoard of treasure, amounting, it is said, to fifty thousand pounds of 
silver, besides gold and jewels, which was stored in the New Temple, was 
also seized by the King and given, for the most part, to Gaveston. Langton 
was taken to Windsor for trial, and afterwards sent back to the Tower in 
the custody of the royal favourite, who appointed gaolers to watch over 
him. He was thereupon carried from one prison to another, chiefly the 
dungeons of various castles, and finally lodged in the Kmg's prison at York. 
His incarceration gave great displeasure to the ecclesiastical authorities, and 
frequent intercession was made for his release, but in vain. Even the Pope, 
Clement V., vainly urged Edward to set him at liberty, on the grounds of 
the contempt which was manifested toward clerical privilege by his continued 
imprisonment. 

It was not until Langton showed himself capable of rendering valuable 
service to the King that he was set at liberty, in 131 2. He was soon 
afterwards restored to his old office of Lord High Treasurer, which he 
thereafter held for a brief period, during the stormiest part of Edward's 
reign, in which the King's favourite. Piers Gaveston, fell under the heads- 
man's axe. In 131 5, Walter Langton shook off the cares of state — poorer 
by ^20,000 than when he had entered upon the service of the crown — and 
during the remaining years of his life devoted himself wholly to the affairs 
of his diocese. He was still a wealthy man, and he gave largely of his 
store for the completion and enrichment of his cathedral. While yet he 
was busy in the affairs of the realm, he had begun the building of the 
lady-chapel. He also built a wall round the close, for " the honour of God, 
the dignity of the cathedral, and the bodies of the saints there reposing, 
and also for the security and quiet of the canons." 

Not content with having enclosed the cathedral precincts, Langton also 
built for himself a splendid palace within the close, containing, among other 
notable apartments, a great hall, one hundred feet long and fifty-six broad, 
decorated with rich frescoes, depicting the coronation, marriage, wars, and 
funeral of his royal patron, Edward I. This sumptuous building was destroyed 



THE CATHEDRAL BUILDERS. 



93 



during the Civil War, together with much of the domestic architecture of 
the close, which owed so much to the munificence of Walter Langton. One 
of the gates of the close, that on the western side, remained until 1800, 
when it was removed in order to widen the road into the close. 

Langlon's munificence did not end with the building of the Episcopal 
Palace. He built houses for the vicars, repaired and improved Eccleshall 
Castle and his London palace in the Strand ; he built the great bridge 
over the Minster Pool ; he gave a shrine of sumptuous workmanship for 
the better preservation of the bones of St. Chad, and a jewelled cross of 
gold and costly vestments for the high altar ; and bequeathed a large sum 
of money to be used by his successor (Bishop Norbury), for the completion 
of the Lady Chapel and other works for the beautifying of his beloved 
cathedral. The three spires (referred to by Leland as " three stone 
pyramids,") were built during the episcopate of Norbury, but it is not im 
probable that their erection was largely due to the ample fund which 
Langton had left for the completion of the cathedral. 

Walter Langton, who stands out as the most famous of the many notable 
mediaeval bishops of Lichfield, died at his palace in London, on the 9th of 
November, 1321, and was brought down to Lichfield, and there buried, in 
great state, in the lady-chapel which he had built. His remains were 
covered by a tomb of Derbyshire stone, bearing an eflfigy, which, although 
somewhat mutilated, still remains to tell of the greatness of the royal 
favourite, whose greatest monument, after all, is the fair cathedral which 
owes so much to his loving care. 




^be Baron0 of Cbartlei?. 

MONG the multitude of nobles and fighting adventurers 
from Normandy, who shared in the spoils of the Conquest 
and whose names became renowned in after years from 
territorial rank or prowess in arms, few names have greater 
attraction for the Midlander than that of Ferrers, Lords 
of the Castle of Tutbury — the gift of the Conqueror to his 
companion-in-arms, Henry Ferrers — and owning innumerable lordships in four- 
teen English counties, the family became connected collaterally with the Mercian 

Earls, the Norman Earls of Chester, 
the Verduns, and the Plantagenets, 
possessors of the castle of Chartley 
and barons of that stronghold. 

Foremost among the Crusaders 
and prominent in the Barons' wars 
were the members of this illus- 
trious family. They were founders 
of Tutbury Priory and various 
Abbe3'S and Priories in other shires. 
They held important offices in the 
State, and were allied with the 
great Midland families of the Mar- 
mions, Hillarys, Dymokes, and 
Frevilles, and eventually owners of 
Marmion's fortress of Tamworth. 
The annals of chivalry yield no 
greater or more enduring name 
than that of Ferrers. 

A TOWER OF CHARTLEY CASTLE. 




THE BARONS OF CHARTLEY. 9^ 

Henry Ferrers, the son of Walkelin, Lord St. Hilaire in Normandy, 
is traditionally said to have held the post of equine controller of the Duke's 
army, a kind of veterinariuSy but the name and emblazonment of six horse- 
shoes in his coat of arms had probably a more remote origin. He had 
his principal seat at the Castle of Tutbury, in which place he founded a 
Benedictine Priory. He was also one of the Domesday Commissioners for 
the Midlands. In 1138 his son Robert led the forces of Derbyshire at the 
victorious battle of the Standard, whereupon he was created Earl of Derby 
by King Stephen. His daughter was the first wife of Bertram de Verdun, the 
Lord of Alveton, now famous as Alton, and who late in life founded the 
Abbey of Croxden. 

The first Earl was succeeded in 11 39 by his son, another Robert, who 
founded several abbeys, in one of which, the Cistercian Abbey of Merevale, 
founded in 1 148, he directed his body to be buried, wrapped in an oxhide. 

The Earldom was in 1165 held by his son William, whose son Robert 
succeeded him before 11 73, in which year he was one of the leaders of the 
rebellion against Henry \\. During this struggle the Castle of Tutbury was 
besieged, and upon the failure of the rebellion the Earl surrendered it to 
the King, and it was subsequently destroyed. 

By some of our historians Robert is said to have been killed the 21st 
October, 1190, during the prolonged siege of Acre, and that his successor 
was William, who survived unti 1246. Other authorities, and particularly 
Dugdale,* bring in an intermediary holder of the earldom between Robert 
and William, who is said to have also borne the name of William This 
alleged intermediary earl, they affirm, held the title after the accession of 
Richard I., who gave Tutbury to his brother (afterwards King John), but 
that the next year William being restored to favour went with King 
Richard to Palestine, and was there slain in loqi. 

William Ferrers, his successor (the sixth Earl according to Dugdale), 
the first Ferrers who possessed Chartley, occupied a prominent position in 
the history of his time. Upon the sudden and unexpected return of King 
Richard, in 1194, he became commander of his forces, and with Ranulph, 

* " Dugdale's Warwickshire," Merevale, 



^6 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Earl of Chester — whose sister Agnes he married — besieged and captured the 
Castle of Nottingham. These two Earls were constant companions-in-arms 
throughout the reigns of Richard and John. They were in attendance 
upon the latter King when he died at Newark-on-Trent, and were witnesses 
to his will in October, 1216. After successfully seating Henry III. upon the 
throne they journeyed together to the Holy Land, and upon their return 
Earl Ranulph built Chartley Castle and, according to Leland,* lay there 
whilst building his Abbey Dieu-la-cres. 

The site of the castle is an admirable one, standing upon a mound 
midway between the ancient towns of Stafford and Uttoxeter — seven miles 
from each — and about thirteen from Tutbury Castle. Its great strength is 
yet shown in its ruined towers, which have so long defied the fell hand 
of Time. The fortress came into the hands of Earl William's wife upon the 
death of Earl Ranulph in 1231. 

Earl William, after a married life of 55 years, died of gout in 1246, his 
wife dying the same month. His son and successor, William, having married 
a daughter of the Earl of Pembroke, and having seven daughters, became a 
widower ; he was re-married to a daughter of the Earl of Winchelsea, Roger 
de Quincy ; and his father-in-law, de Quincy, also left a widower, married 
Earl William's youngest daughter, whereby he became also his son-in-law. 

This Earl died in 1254, and was buried in Merevale Abbey. Matthew 

Paris, in his " English Chronicle," says : — 

" This noble had, from his earliest years, laboured under an infirmity in his feet called the 
gout, as his father had before him, and from whom he inherited it as it were. He was 
usually carried from place to place in a litter or a carriage. One day, as he was proceeding 
on his journey, his servants, through careless driving, allowed his carriage to be upset on a 
bridge, and although he escaped with his life at the time, he was never properly sound in 
body afterwards, and soon after went the way of all flesh." 

By his second wife Earl Ferrers acquired the lordship of Groby, thus 

founding the family of Ferrers and Grey of Groby, of which line were the 

Marquesses of Dorset, Lady Jane Grey, and the Earls of Stamford. 

* "Chartley, the olde Castell, is now in mine, but old yerle Randol, as sum say, lay in it when he builded 
Dcu r encres Abbay. This castel standeth a good flite shot from the building and goodly manor place that now 
is ther as the principal house of the Ferrers, and cam to them be similitude by marriage. Ther is a mighte 
large parke."— Z,f/<i'(rf. 



THE BARONS OF CHARTLEY. 97 



The active and eventful life of Robert the last Earl of Derby is writ 
large in the chronicles of the period. Although but thirteen at his father's 
death the crown acquired his wardship by purchase, and he was married 
in 1249 at the age of eight to the king's niece, a seven-year-old bride. 
His child wife, however, died young and childless, whereupon Earl Robert 
married a daughter of Ralph Basset of Drayton, and with his brother-in- 
law, the first Lord Basset, he played a prominent part in the great 
struggle of the Barons against the evil government, misrule, and corruption 
of Henry III., a struggle in defence of the principles of the Great Charter, 
and when Simon de Montfort, the one brave man capable of arousing the 
enthusiasm of the English Barons arose. Basset and Ferrers were foremost 
in rallying to his standard. 

The great struggle which ensued was most disastrous to Staffordshire. 
The leaders were Midland barons and nearly all the fighting men of the 
shire were enrolled in their forces. It is true the Baron of Dudley, 
Marmion of Tamworth, the Ardernes of Cnotton and Cherlton, the Oakovers 
and a few others sided with the King. They were, however, subjected to 
all the evils of civil war. Their houses were pillaged and burnt, and 
woods and crops destroyed by armed men, and for the time the law became 
powerless and was suspended. 

In the early days of the struggle, in 1263, Earl Robert attacked Worcester, 
demolished the Jewry, and destroyed the King's Park. In retaliation 
the Prince Edward entered Staffordshire with his army and mercilessly 
devastated with fire and sword all the Earl's lands, and once again the 
Castle of Tutbury was destroyed. 

The Earl shared in Montfort's victory at Lewes, and he was probably 
also present at Evesham battle, August ist, 1265, when Ralph Basset and 
many local fighting men fell with Simon de Montfort. Ferrers, however, 
either at Evesham or elsewhere, was taken prisoner, but eventually set at 
liberty, and subject to special and arbitrary precautions against future dis- 
loyalty, fully pardoned. 

Regardless, however, of all consequences, Earl Robert speedily rejoined his 
broken party, and made a brave but futile attempt to retrieve its losses. 



98 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Having raised an army he gave battle to the King's forces at Chesterfield 
on Whitsun Eve, 1266, but vi^as defeated. 

A curious story is told of his escape from the field of battle and taking 
refuge in a church. Here he lay concealed under some sacks of wool suffering 
from gout, as did his father and grandfather, and was entirely helpless. His 
hiding place was divulged by a woman, and he was again made prisoner, 
loaded with chains, and taken to Winchester. The terms of his former 
pardon were now enforced. His estates, previously conveyed to the King, 
by special charter, were confiscated and he was deprived of his estates, 
titles, and dignities, the greater portion of which were conferred upon 
Edmund (Crookback), the King's second son. After an imprisonment of 
three years Ferrers was liberated and restitution of his vast estates offered 
for a consideration of ^50,000. This sum, however, he could not, or would 
not, raise, but unsuccessfully attempted their recovery by law.* 

Edward I. had now ascended the throne. Robert Ferrers died shortly 
afterwards and his only son John, who retained Chartley as his mother's 
heritage, subsequently became Baron Ferrers of Chartley. 

Thus ended the first Earldom of Derby, so closely interwoven with the 
historic events of our county. The vast territorial possessions in various 
counties and the ancient Castle of Tutbury, held by the Ferrers for two 
centuries, passed to the house of Lancaster, and henceforth the Castle of 
Chartley gave the family their title, and for a further period of nearly two 
centuries the Ferrers followed the fortune of the Plantagenets. 

John Ferrers, the son of the last Earl of Derby, and the first Baron 
of Chartley, true to the instincts of his race, participated in the 
rebellion of the Earls of Hereford and Norfolk. His son Robert married 
a daughter of the first-named Earl, the powerful Humphry de Bohun, 
and succeeded his father in 1321. Like his father, Robert was an able 



* The Castle and Park of Chartley were given by the King to Hamon le Strange— who was also made Sheriff of 
Staffordshire. Ferrers and his followers attacked the castle, drove out the invaders, and took possession, but 
it was recaptured, after an obstinate resistance, by the king's forces under the new Lord of Tutbury, Edmund 
of Lancaster. Great complaints were laid against Le Strange and his deputy, one Leon, for abuses during his 
shrievalty. He was also presented by the Steward and Forester of Cannock before the Court of the Justices 
of the Forest in 1271 for taking a buck without warrant while passing through Teddesley in June, 1269, and 
conveying same to his castle of Chartley, and also for taking the same week two does in Cheslynhaye. 



THE BARONS OF CHARTLEY. 



99 



soldier, and after serving in the Scotch wars and sharing in the glory of 
Cressy, died in the year 1350. His son John, the third Baron, died in 
1367, and Robert, the fourth Baron, in 141 3. 

Edmund Ferrers, the fifth Baron, married Elena de la Roche, the heiress 
of several manors near Birmingham. She was grand-daughter of Thomas, 
Lord of Birmingham, and for many years they held the Manor of Birmingham 
and lived in that town, built a mansion near the ancient Manor House, 
and took so great an interest in the recently -founded Gild that the arms of 
the Ferrers's were emblazoned in a window of the Gild Hall. But after 
the death, in 1436, of her husband Lady Ferrers married Sir Philip 
Chetwynd, and the Manor was recovered from her by the male heirs of 
the Berminghams. 




CHARTLEY, FROM THE CASTLE HILL. 



The military life of Edmund was in accord with that of his ancestors, 
and he shared in most of the great victories of Henry V. His eldest 
son, William, the sixth Baron, left an only daughter, who married Walter 



lOO 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Devereux, through whom and whose descendants and the ancient family of 
Shirley, the Barony was transmitted, but the connection of those families 
with Chartley need not now be followed. Each has a history of its own 
which belong to another and a later period. 

Although the romance of Chartley is anterior to the reign of the Tudors 
the lordly domain is still held — as it has been held for six and a half 
centuries — by a Ferrers, The venerable Castle has for centuries been 
crumbling away — but its moated defence is yet visible. From its com- 
manding position to the west may still be seen the pools which formed the 
defence of the "goodly manor place," and the mansion standing upon the 
site of the building which Leland saw and in which Mary Queen of Scots 
was incarcerated. 

More than a mile to the east, herds of red deer and of fallow deer still 
roam the " Mighte parke," and, stranger still, here may yet be found a 
remarkable and rare survival of the wild cattle of the old British breed, 
which have perpetuated their race from prehistoric times. 



IRobin lboo^ of Xoyle^. 




NDER the date 1189, the first year of Richard I., the 
Chronicle of John Stowe records : — 

In this time were many robbers and outlawes, among the which 
Robert Hood and little John continued in woods, despoyling and robbing 
the goods of the rich. The said Robert intertaineth an hundred tall 
men, and good archers, with such spoiles as he got, upon whom foure 
hundred, were they never so strong, durst not give the onset, Poore 
men's goods he spareth, abunda'tlie relieving them with that which he got fro' abbyes and 
the houses of rich earles. 

For this the accepted history of Robin Hood, or Hode — as handed down 
from generation to generation for more than three centuries — the only 
history the common people thought worth preserving, we are indebted to 
Mair, or Major, who wrote in 1521. Grafton, Stowe, and Camden all 
adopted it and Robinson versified it. Major called Robertiis Hiidus " the 
most humane and prmce of all robbers." William Shakespeare made two 
allusions to him ; and Camden styled him " the gentlest thief that ever 
was." 

However slight our knowledge may be of the earliest Robin Hood 
rhymes, the fifteenth century minstrels gave a colour to his adventures, 
which has been well preserved in all the folk-lore and romance which has 
gathered around his name. 

" In somer when the shawes be sheyn, 
And leves be large and long. 
Hit is full mery in fayre forest 
To here the foulys song. 

To se the dere draw to the le, " 

And leve their hillis hee. 
And shadow hem in the levis grene 

Under the .greenwood tre." 



J 02 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Upon the introduction of printing, these old rhymes were seized upon by 
the ballad scribes, but the sixteenth and seventeenth century productions 
were fitting only for the pedlar's pack, although some of them may embody 
facts containing a germ of truth. 

Robert Od, Hod, or Hode, was born at Loxley about 1160, seven years 
after Ranulph, Earl of Chester, was poisoned by Peverell. 

The earliest known reference to Robin Hood, that of Piers Plowman, 
1362, little more than a century after his death, is as follows : — 

I can (ken) noghte perfidy my pater-noster, as the prest it syngeth, 
But I can (ken) rymes of Robin Hood, and Randolf, Erie of Chestre." 

This may be an accidental coupling of these names, as an ancient ballad 
poem of the Earls of Chester is still preserved which deals largely with 
Earl Ranulph, of Robin Hood's time, the grandson of the Ranulph who 
died II 53. It has, however, not unnaturally been inferred that rhymes in 
which the two names are coupled existed at that period. 

Ranulph, the grandfather, was mainly instrumental in securing the 
reversion of the English throne to the Plantagenet claimant, afterwards 
Henry II., and was rewarded by a wholesale grant of Staffordshire lordships, 
a grant which certainly never took full effect, although, in some instances, 
it may have enabled the Earl to obtain possession. Among the estates 
given to Earl Ranulph by this abortive grant from the Norman Duke, 
were the A\hole fee (all the estates) of Radidphits films odonis — the latinized 
form of Od or Hod — wherever the same can be found. 

These estates lay dispersed about Staffordshire, with, perhaps, some few 
outlying upon the Shropshire border, and in Warwickshire or other counties. 
The Odos were then settled in Staffordshire, as were also the Bagots and 
Trussells. William Bagot and William Trussel married daughters of Robert 
Fitz Odo, and upon his death, about 1179, succeeded to the Staffordshire 
Estates, and also the Lordship of Lockesley in Warwickshire. 

Among the least reliable traditions of Robin Hood is his claim to the 
Earldom of Huntingdon. In the last century the learned, but not very 
reliable. Dr. Stukeley, compiled a pedigree to agree with this claim of the 



ROBIN HOOD OF LOXLEY. I03 



ballad mongers, and he derived the connection through the Lincolnshire 
family of Kyme.* 

In Robin Hood's time the Earl of Huntingdon was David St. Liz, who 
married Maud, daughter of Hugh, Earl of Chester, sister of Ranulph the 
last Earl, and sister-in-law of William Ferrers, Earl of Derby, of Tutbury 
and Chartley Castles. 

The neighbouring village of Lockesley, or Loxley, was one of the Ferrers 
properties, and had been settled upon a younger son. It passed with a 
female descendant, about 1327, in marriage to John de Kynardesleye. At 
that time Loxley was woodland on the borders of Needwood forest ; it is 
near Bagots Bromley and Bagot's park, still famous for its giant oaks of 
ancient growth. 

But where was the Loxley in which Robin Hood was born ? That it 
was not in Nottinghamshire has to be admitted from the simple fact that 
there was no Lockesley, or Loxley, in the county. That Robin's exploits 
were chiefly in Sherwood and in Barnsdale and other northern forests is 
undoubted, but that they were not confined to any shire or district is 
equally certain. The earliest reference connecting his name with any locality 
that of Wyntoun, 1420, says : — 

" In Yngilwode and Barnysdale 
Thai oysyd all this time thare trawale. " 

and in the ballads of early origin Barnsdale is as often the scene of his 
adventures as Sherwood, whilst Plumpton park, Cumberland, and Ingleton 
forest, still further north, were said to have been frequented by his band ; 
yet none of these districts claim him as a native, possibly Loxley Chase, 
near Sheffield, might be shown to have such a claim, but no serious attempt 
appears to have been made to prove the connection. 

In Harwood's notes upon Erdeswick's Survey of Staffordshire and its 
antiquities, referring to Loxley, near Bagot's park, Staffordshire, he says 
explicitly :—" Loxley was the birth-place of Robin Hood; a rambling life 



* This pedigree described by Parkin as "jocose" went back four generations for the connection by marriage 
with one of the family of the Earls of Huntingdon. Ritson in his investigations asserts that Slukeley gives 
no authority to show that the Kymes were really named Fitz Ooth or Odo, and further states that no such 
name has been met with elsewhere. 



104 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



led him to Tutbury, not far from his birth-place, where he married a 
shepherdess under the poetical name of Clorinda, having been charmed by 
her dexterous manner of killing a buck in the forest." 

That the Odos lived during Robin Hood's career within three miles of 
Loxley, is clearly shown by a deed relating to the Mill of Wolseley, a 
few miles from Loxley, to which Robert fil Odom's is a witness. 




ANCIENT DEED OF WOLSELEY, temp. HENRY III. 



Although not dated, this deed is apparently of the early part of the third 
Henry's reign. It is a grant from Wolseley to Adam, son of Adam the 
parson of Colwyz, The witnesses are Robert the Chaplin, Henry Preposttns, 
Robert Jil Odonis^ of Huytcestri (Uttoxeter), Henry Albo — of Huytcestri, 
John of Ch'ntri'gew', Richard of Hintes, Robert of Wolseley, John Grim 
the Chaplain of Radfort, and others. Richard of Hintes was at that date 
joint-lord with Richard Wolseley of Wolseley Manor. 



ROBIN HOOD OF LOXLEY. 10^ 



But this is not the only evidence of the Odos or Hodes Hving at that 
time in the neighbourhood. In 1258 a WilHam Hod with Robert de 
Stafford and Ralph Scurry had to answer a charge of robbing, maltreating, 
and imprisoning one Nicholas Mai ;* and thirteen years later, William Hod 
and two others were presented before the Justices of the Forest of Cannock 
having " conveyed a dead doe in a covered cart from the Haye of 
Teddesle to the house of William Hod, who was then dead."t This William 
Hod lived near Penkridge, upon the confines of the forest. Other instances 
could be adduced of members of the Odo family living in the 
neighbourhood. 

Although statements in the ballad literature of Robin Hood are of little 
value biographically, allusion must be made to " ^ new ballad of bold 
Robin Hood shewing his birth, breeding, valonr, and marriage at Titbiiry, 
Bnll-riinning, calculated for the meridian of Staffordshire but may serve for 
Derbyshire or Kent^ The date is uncertain, evidently later than Elizabeth's 
reign. It is earlier than any allusion to Maid Marian ; it asserts " The 
father of Robin a forester was," and contains the first mention of Locksley 
being in Nottinghamshire. It has many allusions to Staffordshire, it assumes 
that Sherwood and Tutbury lie near together ; it details a fight near Tutbury, 
Sir Roger the parson hies from Dubbridge (Doveridge),! and the writer who 
says : — "I'm the King of the Fidlers," is evidently familiar with the minstrelsy 
and the inevitable fight which invariably accompanied the bull-running. 

Upon the whole the ballad may be of doubtful value in connecting Robin 
Hood with Staffordshire, but it shows the weak origin of the statement 
that Locksley is a village of Notts. 

It is needless to refer in detail to the numerous survivals in the county 
cf Robin Hood's Wells, Robin Hood's Butts, and other places traditionally 
connected with the great outlaw. Such names exist throughout England ; 
but it may be pointed out that at Elford, Burton, Locksley, and Ludchurch, 
the name remains in localities which, in the thirteenth century, were likely 
to attract the Prince of Robbers. 

* Salt Society's Staffordshire Collections vol. 4, p. 136 ; t Ibid., vol. 5, part i, p. 148, 
{ This is a very remarkable allusion, Doveridje although in Derbyshire is close to Uttoxeter, where members 
of the Odo or Hod family lived. 




Croy^en Bbbc^ an& its jfounber. 

ITH its five abbeys, ten priories or cells, and four nunneries, 
besides its venerable cathedral and six collegiate churches, 
Staffordshire was, in former times, bountifully endowed with 
monuments of the religious fervour of its Saxon and Norman 
nobles. Among the ruined abbeys of the county there 
exists no better preserved relic of early architecture than 
the great west doorway of the Cistercian Abbey of Croxden. The reason 
for this is not far to seek. Within about a mile of its walls is the quarry 
of Hollington, yet famous for the durability of its stone ; and although this, 
the principal entrance, is apparently of later date than the foundation of the 
Abbey, the perfect preservation of stonework so ancient can scarcely be 
equalled. 

The Abbey stands between the Churnet and the Blyth, near to a streamlet 
called the Peake, two miles distant from the old Castle of the Verduns at 
Alveton, or Alton, and about three miles from Rocester, where an Abbey 
of Black Monks had already existed from 1146. An old doggerel rhyme 
not of early date, thus records the founding of Croxden Abbey : 
" Bertram, son of the Norman Verdun, 
Founded the ancient Abbey of Croxden, 
When Henry the Second was England's King 
He did perform this very great thing ; 
In the year one thousand one hundred and seventy-six 
Upon this great work his mind he did fix ; 
He dedicated it unto Sainte Mary, 
Of the order of Bernardine monks to be. 
One hundred pounds six shillings and sevenpence 
In lands he gave for its defence. 
Besides many other great gifts given 
By persons devout for to gain Heaven." 



CROXDEN ABBEY AND ITS FOUNDER. IO7 

Bertram, Baron Verdun, the founder of Croxden, was the son of Norman 
de Verdun and Laceline de Clinton, and was twice married, first to Maud 
de Ferrers, and afterwards to Rohese, or Rose, of a family unknown. 
Whether Verdun obtained Alveton from Henry II. for his great services 
(unlike many barons in these parts he remained faithful to that king), or 
by one of his marriages, is not certain, nor is it material. In the year 
1 1 76 he gave to the monks of Aulney, in Normandy, a piece of land in 
Chotes, or Chotene (probably Cotton) to build a Cistercian Abbey in the 
Vale of St. Mary (still called Maryvale) ; three years afterwards it was 
removed to Croxden, and became the burying-place of the Verdun family. 

Bertram de Verdun joined with Ferrers, Earl of Derby, and other Midland 
barons, in the prolonged crusade at the close of the reign of Henry II., 
and but few of them returned again to their ative land. In 1191 Acre fell 
before the forces of Richard I., and Bertram was appointed governor of the 
city, but died at Joppa in the following year. The barony fell a century 
later, but the holders of the title were not closely connected with the 
county, although the Audleys, or Alditheleys, the Ipstones, the Stanley's, 
Earls of Derby, and other families, were younger branches of the Verdun 
family. 

As to the history of Croxden Abbey, little is preserved beyond dry details 

from charters ; one monk of the Abbey, however, William de Shepesheved, 

wrote a chronicle from the Conquest to 1374. The one incident worthy of 

special note is that of the burial here of the heart of King John. The 

» 
King had taken a fever at Swineshead Abbey in Lincolnshire, and died at 

Newark on the 19th of October, 12 16. His physician was the Abbot of 

Croxton, in Leicestershire ; by him the body was disembowelled (probably as a 

measure of preservation, as the King had, in his will,* directed that he should 

be buried before the High Altar in Worcester Cathedral), and the bowels were 

interred at Croxton Abbey. The heart of the monarch whom few sincerely 

mourned, was carried to the Staffordshire Abbey of Croxden, and there 

interred, near to the last resting-place of the Verduns, who had been faithful 

in their allegiance to his father, Henry II. 

* For a copy of this will, see "Historic Worcestershire," by W. Salt Brassington, F.S.A., page 193. 



I08 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



The special preservation and separate interment of the human heart was 
not at one period an uncommon custom. Richard I. bequeathed his heart 
to a Norman monastery ; Edward I., and Robert Bruce, both bequeathed 
their hearts to the Holy Land ; and, nearer home, Ranulph, Earl of Chester, 
by testamentary deed, bequeathed his heart to the Abbey Dieu-la-Cres, 
which he had founded ; and so late as the last century the poetaster, 
Paul Whitehead, bequeathed his heart to his patron. Lord le Despencer, 
to be buried in his mausoleum at West Wycombe. 

The Cistercian or Bernardine monks, like the Cluniacs, a reformed order 
of the Benedictines or Black monks, not only differed from the older body 
in dress, but in several other respects. The Black monks sought to reclaim 
the marsh, and their houses were, as at Burton, Tutbury, and Rocester, 
near the river and the flood ; the attention of the White monks was 
directed to reclaim the moor and the mountain valley, and when at the 
general dissolution of the Abbeys the white-frocked monks were dispersed, 
the territory around the Abbeys of Croxden and Dieu-la-Cres, in the three 
centuries of their existence, had been transformed from a condition of 
barrenness into lovely and fertile districts, and under their fostering care 
had become rich and productive. 

Thomas Chawney, the last of Croxden's Abbots, had, however, to yield 
up the Abbey, its goods, and possessions. The lead was speedily stripped 
from the roofs of the sacred and beautiful building, and converted into 
ready money, as was also the case at Burton, Dudley, Dieu-la-Cres, 
Rocester, Tutbury, Stafford, and many other places. Then followed a ruth- 
less dismantling, a merciless spoliation, unequalled even in the worst days 
of Cromwell's soldiery, * and then the Abbey, its cultivated farms, and 

* In the Scudamore accounts in the British Museum is the following : — Crokesden. — The Salez ther made the 
xvth day of October, anno xxx" regis Henrici viij*'> as herafter followyth : — 

Item, a lytle gatehouse on the north syde of the comyn wey, sold to Mr. Bassett 

Item, sold to Mr. Basset, the loft under the organs 

Item, sold to Mr. Basset, the lytle smythes forge 

Item, the bott of an asshe, sold 

Item, the roffe of the Churche, sold to Sir Thomas Gylbert and Edmund Wetheryns, of 

Chelveley parysshe 
Item, the roffe of the dorter, [? dortnitory] sold to Mr. Bassett 
Item, sold to Johan Feme, all the old tymber in the cloyster 



xiij'- 


lllj''- 


x'- 




iiij'- 


viij""- 




xxd- 


vj«- 




xxxiij'' 


iiij*- 


Vjs. 


viij*- 



CROXDEN ABBEY AND ITS FOUNDER. 



109 



productive lands were all passed to one Foljamb, of Walton, and by him 
were bequeathed to his base-born son, who speedily sold all his father had 
left him. 

Among the Cistercian Abbeys thus despoiled, amounting to about one 
hundred, were those of Furness, Fountains, Rievaulx, Tintern, Melrose, 
Vale Crucis, and Llanthony, and with the effective means adopted to 
promote ruin and decay it is a marvel that so much remains at this time 
to attest the good work of the Abbey builders. At Croxden, not only is 
the Gothic arch and west front wall, 40 feet high, still standing, but many 
of the walls of the south transept, the cloisters and the chapter-house 
also remain. They are of considerable height and of great stability, and 
for a long time to come are likely to remain picturesque and imposing 
ruins of the great Abbey. 




CROXDEN ARBEV, LOOKING NORTH. 




ALREWAS CHURCH. 



airewao an^ its ancient fIDanorial Cnstome. 




HE fascination which attaches to any observation of the 
social life and customs of a past age justifies the turning 
aside from the general purpose of this work to glance at 
the local customs and the powers and privileges of the lord 
of a Staifordshire manor in the middle ages. 

Alrewas, or Alder Water, on the banks of the Trent, is 
one of those extensive lordships or townships lying around a primitive village 
in which changes have been slow, and the history of a thousand years may 
yet be read in its waters, its roads, and its commons. But even a thousand 
years ago Alrewas was a place of great antiquity. Centuries before the Roman 
generals passed and repassed with their forces along its great highway the 
neighbourhood of Alrewas was occupied by the primeval races of the Midlands, 
and the existence of one of the great Salt ways from Cheshire through King's 



ALREWAS AND ITS ANCIENT MANORIAL CUSTOMS. Ill 

Bromley and over Salter's Bridge to the Lincoln coast attests beyond a 
doubt the traffic of pre-Roman times. 

Alrewas was one of the earliest settlements on the Engle forming the 
Central Kingdom, Its peculiar position between the Trent and Tame, and 
upon the two well-used ancient water-ways, with such facts as have come 
to light of its pre-Norman history places this beyond contention. Many 
ancient records are preserved which, whilst illustrating the peculiar features 
of the Manor after the Conquest, incidentally touch upon facts of a much 
earlier period. Long before the Conquest it was a possession of the family 
of Leofric, to whose Tun or Ham of Bromley it immediately^ adjoined ; but at 
the date of Domesday it was in the King's hands, having a priest and some 
twenty-seven land-holding tenants, whose families, and the families of servants 
and helpers (non-landholders), would make a scattered population of nearly 
300 souls. A church had certainly existed in the place from the year 822. 

The lordship remained in the hands of the crown until 1203, when it 
was granted by King John to Roger Somerville, Knight, to one of whose 
descendants — Sir Philip Somerville, — in 1342, was deputed the curious and 
interesting task of recording in writing the ancient customs of the Manor. 
The necessity for this duty arose out of the various dissensions arising 
between the manorial steward and bailiff and the tenants of the base tenure 
of the manor. Therefore "to avoid the danger of the souls of both parties," 
Sir Philip, having at that date governed the lordship for the space of forty 
years, "and having more knowledge of the certainty of the customs belonging 
to the tenants than any other man now living," hath at the tenants' require- 
ment, caused "all the customs and services in the time the manor was in the 
hands of the King of this realm, to be put in writing and be registered." 

This record is of sufficient interest to justify our dwelling upon it at 
some length. It sets forth that Sir Philip's great grandfather, about the 
time of King Henry III., the 26th of his reign (i 241-2) did often vex and 
trouble his tenants, who at length did get forth the King's writ of Montra 
Vite {Monstr aver tint) ^ and process ran till trial made. The services and 
customs found by this Inquest are then very fully recorded. 

Before referring to these it should be mentioned that incidental to these 



1 1 2 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



disputes extracts from ancient records were procured and preserved. One of 
these has a special interest, as it may not improbably be a survival of the 
supplementary papers connected with the returns made upon the Domesday 
Survey, preserved with the original Grant of the Manor to Sir Roger Somer- 
ville in 1203. That it could have been a forgery made by Sir Philip, or 
one of his ancestors, in order to deceive the tenants of the manor seems 
in the highest degree improbable. It runs as follows : — 

" A true copy of what is expressed in the Booke of Doomesday as followeth : — 
" Doomesday de Alrewas in Oflow Hundred. 

" In the time of William Bastard King it is thus written in the Booke of Doomsday : — 
" And that the same Algarius, whilst he held the Lords Mannour was Earl of Lyndocolne, 
who dying without Heirs the Lords Mannour came by Escheate into the hands of Allured 
King of England because that it first was of the Crown of England and ought not to be 
separated from it and hath so succeeded always and was in the hands of the King till the 
times of King John the brother of King Richard who in the fifth year of his Reign gave the 
Mannour to Roger of Sommerville, Knight, and Lord of Witchnor, to fee farm," etc., etc. 

Accepting this record as genuine — and it certainly was so accepted in 1342 
(15 Ed. III.) — the remarkable fact is shown that Algar, the .^Idorman of 
Lincoln, who figures so prominently in the life of Alfred the Great, and 
who won the admiration of the West Saxons by his bravery against the 
Danes in 869, was the Lord of the Estate adjoining Bromley, in later ages 
held by Leofric and his son Algar. 

The descriptions, services, and customs shown by the proceedings of 26 
Henry III., and again of 15 Ed. III., are of a peculiar character. The Cottages 
of Domesday are called Buddels or Vicdels ; the free tenants were of two 
kinds, those holding by charter and those of ancient time, or free sockmen. 
Increase of rent was obtained by alienating divers ways, and for new land 
converting the demesne lands of the lord into open fields for the tenants, 
among these Brom-holme being specially mentioned. 

Upon the death of a tenant the lord took the best ox, or horse, and 
the Church the next best, and the method of division in case no ox or 
horse was left was most intricate — of kyne, heifers, or bullocks the lord 
shall ever have the best, the Church the next— if a calf only it was divided, 
if two mares the lord and the Church have them equally, but never to 



ALREWAS AND ITS MANORIAL CUSTOMS. 



1^3 



take hog nor goat, mutton nor sheep, but they shall take the tenant's best 
uppermost coat betwixt them. 

But the case of the tenant of base tenure was especially oppressive. All his 
male horses, and his bees, except the best which ought to remain with the 
ground, went to the lord, also his bacons, and whole webb, dyed or coloured, 
but of webb not coloured, or if part coloured, or part cut or sold, unless 
after the beginning of the sickness of the tenant in fraud of the lord, 
nothing. 




C. E. IVeale, 



Tamwortk. 



BROMLEY MANOR. 



For merchett of their daughters, viz., a licence to marry, to pay two 
shillings, or a bullock, whose eares and homes be of the same length. 
Widows not to marry without licence of the bailiff, and if any of them do 
then shall she lose the land. 



114 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



For every horse they sell, to pay fourpence, and for every colt twopence. 
For pannage or mast (the right to turn his hogs into the woods), every 
tenth hog, or pay at the rate of a penny each hog yearly. 

The tenants by base tenure moreover had to mow one meadow lying 
within Trent, and shall have one mutton, at which they shall run if the 
bailiff will, or twelve pence, but the tenants shall cock the same hay. 

The child of a deceased tenant to have his land at age of fifteen, and 
pay the lord's fine at will of lord or steward, as little and measurable as 
they can agree, but the law of God and the custom of the land will that 
the fine be seized after a reasonable rate, for hitherto no fine hath exceeded 
one mark of silver for one yard land (about fourpence the acre). 

The base tenure tenants could not set their children to school without 
the lord's leave, but the free sockmen were not so restricted and might 
set their sons to school or holy orders. 

Tenants of yard land, etc., shall fish in the waters of Trent, Tame, 
Mease, Marebrook, or Pipebrook, with an engine called a strike, three days 
in the week for their own table without selling. 

Another custom, which seems to refer only to the death of a free sock- 
man, gave to the lord — with the best horse — the saddle and bridle with 
his sword, or else his best garment, sword, spear, bow, or ax which he 
used to bear. 

The eldest son was heir, and, if no son, eldest daughter, to exclusion of 
the younger. 

In 1342 the ancient spelling, "Alderwas," heads a List of Tenants, among 
whom were Sir John Arden, Kt., Sir John Stafford, Kt., Roger Hillary, 
Kt., and Sir John Treyford, Kt. ; among the Sockmen, John de Walton, 
and among the Villani, Villaines, or Farmers, Dynott, Alwyn, le Baxter, le 
Woodward, le Reve, Sylvester Adam, Chaplaine, Gilbert at ye Mill, Christian 
the Roper, Richard the Prest, etc. The manor then comprised — besides 
Alrewas — Curburrow Somerville, Curburrow Thornes, Frodley, Orgreave, 
Edingale ; whilst, later, Frauncis End, Milne End, Hie Cross End, and 
Gaywood End were included. 

In a Rental of 1510 the Prioress of Fayswall held Curborrough Sommerveyle, 



ALREWAS AND ITS MANORIAL CUSTOMS. 



"5 



and saith prayers yearly for them that dye, every year, and pays two 
strikes of bread corne to be made into bread and given to the poor, for 
the souls of Phillip Sommervyle, Knight, and Margaret Halx, his wife, and 
their ancestors. 

The waters of Trent and Tame were let in various lengths, and among 
the defined boundaries were Burlake Head, Long lake, Acres holme, Milne 
ford, Dome water. King's bridge, Brethel holme, Milne Stone ford, and 




C. E. Weale, 



Tantworth. 



THE TRENT, NEAR ALREWAS. 



Clerks holme, on the Trent, and ye holme near Pollfrogg, Salters Bridge, 
and to Trent, on the Tame, and Sir Henry Vernon pays 24 Gallinas for 
Fishing of the Meise. 

A peculiar illustration of early tenure is recorded. Isabel, which was the 
Wife of William Orlyd, held in Stafford 3 parts of i Burgage in Eastgate 



ii6 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Street, and William Sturney the remainder, and pays 4d., and that 
the Reve of the Manor of Alrewas shall every year receive the Hospitality 
freely with the Tennants of the same upon the tenements. In connection 
with this ancient tenure is the statement that " If there be a general 
riseing in England, ye said Lord of the Mannour of Alrewas shall keep 
four cornels of ye wall of the town of Stafford for the safety of the Town 
of our lord the King, four days at the charges of the Town of Stafford." 

Alrewas is now an attractive and popular haunt of the modern followers 
of rare Isaak Walton, but it would scarcely be possible to find another 
manor in the county which, at the time Henry VIII. became King, had 
preserved so severely the habits and customs existing when the Saxon Algar 
owned the Manor and lived on its borders, and even at the present time 
the early place-names are with but slight variation still preserved. 





WOODEN BRIDGE OVER TRENT. 




*»-^ 



DRAYTON BASSET (from Shaw's "Staffordshire.") 




Baeaet of Brai^ton. 

RAYTON Manor has so long been associated with the memory 
of the great Prime Minister of the earlier years of 
Victoria's reign, and that of his father, the first Sir 
Robert Peel, that its early historic fame as the home of 
the powerful Basset family is somewhat obscured. But the 
little unpretending village of Drayton, which in the hey- 
day of the great statesman's fame was visited by the Sovereign of the 
Realm and the Czar of all the Russias, as well as by statesmen, generals, 
scholars, and men of every rank, boasts an antiquity reaching back beyond 
the days when Caesar's legions first trod British soil. Its name, which is of 
Celtic derivation, and its position upon the Watling Street and on the 
borderland of the forest of Cannock and the chase of Sutton, attest its 
occupation in British, Roman, and Saxon times. 



1 1 8 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Drayton was one of the possessions of Leofric, and passed to his grand- 
son Edwine. When the Norman gained an assured footing in England, 
and rewarded his followers with the spoils of the vanquished, he divided 
the Manor of Drayton between Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, and Turstine 
de Basset.* The former gave his moiety as a dowry with his daughter 
Geva, on her marriage with Geoffrey Ridel, a justice of England, who 
perished in the ill-fated "White Ship," in 1119, with the two royal princes. 

Among the pious acts perpetuating the memory of Geva Ridel was the 
founding, at a great age, of a priory of Benedictine Monks at Canwell, 
fronting the great northern road through Coleshill and Lichfield. This 
foundation was attached by Cardinal Wolsey, 1526. The estate was pur- 
chased by Bishop Vesey, and passed eventually to the Lawley family — Lord 
Wenlock. An ancient well on the site bore the name of S. Modwen's 
Well ; it was reputed to possess miraculous properties of healing. It may 
be that the fame of this well led to the choice of the site for the priory. 

By the marriage of Geoffrey Ridel's daughter, Maud, with Richard Basset, 
the two portions of the manor of Drayton became re-united in the hands 
of the Basset family, whose name has been linked with that of the manor 
ever since. f Ralph Basset, the father of Richard, was a lawyer of great 
eminence, exalted position, and vast wealth. He is said to have owed his 
elevation from a lowly condition to the favour of Henry I., but his own 
great ability doubtless had much to do with his success, and this he seems 
to have transmitted to his son, who became a justice of England. 

Two generations later, we find Ralph Basset, the grandson of Richard, 
enclosing a deer park out of Sutton Chase, the hunting place of the Saxon 
kings, and long the possession of the Earls of Warwick. To this Waleran 
de Newburgh, the earl, strenuously objected, but cried quits on Ralph 

* This was the view taken by Dugdale and Erdeswick, based on the entry in the Staffordshire section of 
Domesday. A correspondent of the Rev. R. W. Eyton, in a letter printed in the addenda of his Domesday 
Studies, clearly shows, however, that the entry in the Staffordshire section is an erroneous copy of another 
entry in the Oxfordshire section, the real name of the holder being Turchil (the ancestor of the Ardens) and 
not Turstin, and the Drayton referred to being in Oxfordshire. On this hypothesis we must assume that the 
whole of the Drayton, afterwards known as Drayton Basset, passed to Hugh Lupus, and through his daughter 
Geva to her daughter Maud, and that the first Basset of Drayton was the Richard who married the grand- 
daughter of the Earl of Chester. 

t See note above. 



BASSET OF DRAYTON. II9 



agreeing to send him two good bucks yearly to Sutton, keep good his 
fences, and have no buckstalls.* Thirty years later, Waleran's grandson, 
Thomas, Earl of Warwick, was forcibly prevented by Ralph Basset from 
hunting with dogs in Drayton Chase, but so thoroughly had Basset made 
good his right to a deer park that he obtained no redress. 

The civil dissensions of Henry the Third's reign, culminating in the 
rising of the barons, with Simon de Montfort at their head, brought great 
trouble to this neighbourhood. Ralph, the first Lord Basset, Lord Ferrers, 
and other Staffordshire barons (as already recorded in our chapter on the 
Barons of Chartley) ranged themselves under the standard of De Montfort, 
and Lord Basset held Bridgnorth Castle for his party, but his father-in- 
law, Baron Somery of Dudley, espoused the king's cause. Each side retained 
a force of hirelings, mostly Welshmen. In 1259, one William Leminstre 
and others forcibly bound and took a villain from Somery's manor of 
Sedgley, and imprisoned him at Bridgnorth. In 1261, this Leminstre was 
in the service of Basset, but the next year had changed sides, and trans- 
ferred his services to Philip Marmion, of the king's party, against whom 
Ralph sought redress " for sending his servant, William Leminstre, with a 
great multitude of outlaws and Welshmen ; for breaking open his mill, 
destroying the mill pool, and carrying away the flour to Tamworth Castle. "t 

Subsequently it was shown that the neighbourhood had been disturbed by 
a multitude of Welshmen and others retained by Marmion and Basset, but 
it was arranged that they should find security not to maintain such men 
in future. 

The district, however, still continued to be a hotbed of civil contention 
until the battle of Evesham, August 5th, 1265, in which the Barons were 
defeated. At this battle Ralph Basset was slain, scorning to save himself 
by flight. Matthew Paris tells us in his Chronicle that Simon de Montfort 
" urged Hugh Despenser, Ralph Basset, and others, to fly and save themselves 

» " A buckstall is defined by Cowel as 'a deer-hay ('hay' meaning enclosure), toil, or great net to catch deer 
with;' it might be used to admit wild or stray deer. ... A statute of 19 Henry VII. enacted that 'If any 
personne, having no parke, chase, or forest of his owne, doth keep, or cause to bee kept, anie neltes, called 
deare hayes or buck stalles, he shall forfait, for every moneth that he keepeth the same, x' /iV "—(Notes on 
Birmingham Survey i 1553). 

t Salt, " Staffordshire Collections," vol. iv., p. 151. 



120 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



for better times ; but they all refused to leave him, ' they would not live 
if he died.'"* 

Evesham fight was followed by severe reprisals, whereby the men of 
Staffordshire were great sufferers. Basset's wife, Somery's daughter, was, 
however, treated with consideration, and her son Ralph, the second baron, 
retained the estates until his death in 1299. He was buried at Drayton, and 
the descendants of his two daughters a century later became heirs to the barony. 
Ralph, third baron, who died 1343, and Ralph, the fourth and last baron, 
were both great soldiers ; the latter, a Crusader, died in 1390, and was 
buried in Lichfield Cathedral, but his tomb was destroyed during the Civil 
Wars. After some years of dispute between Edmund, fifth Earl of Stafford, 
and Sir Hugh Shirley, as to the Basset estates, a document was drawn up 
to effect a division, but ere it could be signed both claimants were slain 
at the battle of Shrewsbury, 1403. 

Thus ended the Drayton line of the powerful house of Basset. Eminent 
in early English annals as justices, each of the families — the Bassets of 
Weldon, of Drayton, and of Sapcote, — developed a race of warriors, and after 
the extinction of those baronies the name flourished for a long period. 
Shakespeare introduces a Basset of the Red Rose faction, in Henry VI. 
(acts 3 and 4), and the Staffordshire Bassets of Cheadle and Blore (near 
Oakover) provided six sheriffs of the Shire, and continued at the latter 
place until temp. Elizabeth, and in the church of Blore imposing memorials 
of them still remain. 

Drayton remained a possession of the Staffords until 1521, when, by the 
attainder of the great Duke of Buckingham, it passed to the Crown, and 
was leased to a London mercer named Robinson, whose son William 
became notorious in connection with the murder in 1553 of Sir Richard 
Smyth, of Shireford, by his wife (a Chetwyn of Ingestre), for which crime 
she was burnt at the stake. 

In 1578 Thomas Smythe, the son of William, who had parted with 
Drayton to Richard Paramore, forcibly resumed possession, and was not 
dislodged until the Sheriff, with a force of 7000 people, had beaten down 

* Matthew Paris's English History, vol. iii., p. 356. 



BASSET OF DRAYTON. 



121 



part of the building with cannon ; thereupon Paramore sold his interest in 
the lease to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. 

The rude ancient house, principally of wood and piaster, long remained 
in the possession of the earl's widow, and was afterwards acquired from the 
Crown by one of her family. 




r. E. Weale, 



Tamwortk. 



THE BLACK BROOK. 



Not only are the surroundings of Drayton Park — particularly in the vale 
of the Black Brook — of considerable beauty, but the entire district for ages 
was a famous hunting-ground. During the ownership of the Duke of 
Buckingham, Edward IV. is said to have hunted here ; and from the fact 
that the young Duke was his ward, the tradition, and the well-known 
ballad of the King and the Tamworth Tanner, are not improbabilities. 



^utburi? Caetle anb tbe plantagcnete. 




OR more than six centuries the time-honoured fortress of 
Tutbury has been a possession of the house of Lancaster. 
From the time of Henry of Bolingbroke it has been 
annexed to the Crown, and Queen Victoria, Duchess of 
Lancaster, owns no more interesting rehc of her ancestors 
than the venerable ruin which has been so intimately 
associated with the history of our country. 

In point of antiquity the castle will favourably compete with any early 
English fortress. Although its history in vSaxon times is obscure it is 
conjectured to have sheltered many of the early Mercian kings, and was 
assuredly wrecked and destroyed during the intermittent visits of the 
destroying Dane. The execrable massacre of the Danes in 1012, the 
diabolical revenge of the Saxon, is chronicled as originating at Hound Hill, 
Marchington, a few miles from the castle walls. 

Shortly after the Conquest Tutbury was a stronghold of considerable 
importance. The castle, which stood upon an elevated rock of alabaster, was 
restored and enlarged, and the adjacent priory of Benedictines founded. 

Many circumstances have tended to give a similarity to the history of the 
two great Midland fortresses of Kenilworth and Tutbury. Forfeited to the 
Crown after the fall of the Barons at Evesham, both were given to Edmund, 
the king's son, and for three centuries they shared the vicissitudes of his 
descendants. The memories of Thomas of Lancaster, John of Gaunt, and 
Henry of Bolingbroke, and the glamour of their chivalry and courtly life, are 
inseparably associated with both castles.* 

* It is somewhat remarkable that the name Kenilworth is derived from a Staffordshire man ; it was the worth 
or possession of Chcnieu, the King's Forester of Cannock, temp. Will. I. 



TUTBURY CASTLE AND THE PLANTAGENETS. 



123 



Although destroyed in 1263 by Prince Edward, the stronghold of Tutbury 
again underwent a speedy restoration, and when Edmund of Lancaster died 
in 1296 his son, Thomas Earl of Lancaster, became its owner, living there 
(as his chief seat) in princely magnificence. During the reign of his uncle, 
Edward L, he was wholly engaged in the Scottish wars, but upon the 
accession of his cousin, Edward IL, he was champion of the party opposing 




R. Keene, 



Burtou-oii Trent. 



PRIORY CHURCH OF TUTBURY, 



that monarch's infatuation for the arrogant Gaveston, for whose summary 
execution, near Kenilworth, in 13 12, he was mainly answerable. Nor was 
he less active against the king's new favourites, the Despencers, who were 
banished after years passed in conflict. 



l24 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



In 1 32 1 the king's party became greatly strengthened and the Despencers 
returned home. In March, 1322, Humfrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford, joined 
forces with Lancaster at Tutbury, and posted a strong force to intercept 
the king at Burton Bridge. Lancaster despatched Sir Robert Holland, a 
knight whom he had advanced from the buttery, for reinforcements from 
the north, but he conducted them to the King. Actuated by a long- 
standing hatred of Lancaster, the king and the Despencers marched from 
Coventry with the strongest army they could raise. Their advanced forces 
were, however, repulsed at Burton Bridge. 

The spot was singularly adapted for defence. The Trent is here wide 
and deep. The bridge, a quarter of a mile long, was extremely narrow and 
crooked, and its angles and projections, with its chapels and other buildings 
at the centre and at each end, greatly impeded traffic. It was thus easily 
guarded and formed an impregnable defence. But the King's forces by a 
rear movement crossed the Trent, near Walton, and the Earls were suddenly 
confronted with the main army. Unprepared for this movement they fired 
the town and hastily withdrew to Tutbury, followed by the Royalists. 

Disappointed in their expected reinforcement a rapid retreat northward 
was decided upon. The treasure chest, by an accident or intent, was left at 
the bottom of the Dove, where it remained for seven centuries;* Kenilworth 



* The baggage and military chest are said to have been left by the Earl in charge of his treasurer, Leicester, 
who did his utmost to preserve it, but that in crossing in the dark, the panic-stricken guard lost the chest in 
the river. It is, however, equally probable — the King's forces being at the gates of the castle — that it was 
intentionally sunk beneath the waters of the Dove. The loss of the treasure had a remarkable sequel. The 
Justices of the King were sent down to inquire as to the forfeited goods and chattels of the late Earl, and in 
1324 the Abbot of Burton was charged "with being illegally in possession of ;^40o worth of the eflfects." This 
the Abbot denied, but an adverse jury found a verdict against him for ;<J30o. The Abbot and several monks 
thereupon went to the King, who was in Needwood Forest at Yoxall (presumably at the royal hunting seat) 
solemnly swore they were not guilty, and obtained a promise of pardon. Meantime a writ to levy for £2°° 
came from London, and the Abbot went again to the Kinp, then at Derby, and a day was appointed in London, 
2nd February, 1325, to hear the King's decision, on which day the Abbot and monks disclosed all they knew 
of the goods and received the King's pardon. Two years previously, 2nd March, 1323, the King whilst at 
Knaresborough had given to the Abbey (in memory of his glorious victory) the advowson of the churches of 
Tattenhall and Hanbury. This prosecution of the Abbot may have had a closer connection with the missing treasure 
than appears on the surface. If so, the Abbot's innocence was clearly proved when en the first of June, 1831, 
upon clearing the mill race of the Dove, a number of silver coins were found, about sixty yards below the 
bridge. A further search nearer to the bridge discovered 5000 other coins, and this attracted a great number of 
searchers, with the ultimate result that a total of about 100,000 coins were recovered. These being coined in the reigns of 
Henry III , Edward I., and Edward II., and including Scotch and foreign coins of the same period, left not 
a particle of doubt as to their forming part of the treasure of the ill-fated Earl, and although bridges had been 
built, mills erected, weirs, dams, and channels formed, the only eflfect of five centuries of submersion had been to 
sink the hoard some four or five feet beneath the surface of the gravel. 



TUTBURY CASTLE AND THE PLANPAGENETS. 



125 



and Tutbury surrendered, and Lancaster and Hereford reached Lancaster's 
castle at Pontefract only to decide upon continuing their retreat. At 
Boroughbridge, 35 miles further north, they were confronted with another 




TUTBURY CASTLE AND BRIDGE 
{Front an Old Print). 



army, raised by the King's orders, and in the battle which ensued 
Hereford was slain, and Lancaster, with numerous barons and knights, 
became prisoners and were sent to York. 

The craving of the weak king to avenge the death of Gaveston, which 
he had nourished for ten years, was now to be satiated. By his orders 
Lancaster was conducted from York back to Pontefract, and here he was 
gloatingly reviled by his royal cousin, and, with every insult he could 
devise, ignominiously beheaded about a mile from the town. The followers 
of the unfortunate Earl were also put to death with relentless cruelty. 



126 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Four years after Lancaster's death, however, the Despencers were hanged, 
and the King was a prisoner in Lancaster's fortress of Kenihvorth, which 
now belonged to Henry, the late Earl's younger brother, who treated the 
king with honourable humanity. In January, 1327, Edward was deprived 
of his crown, and in the September following was barbarously murdered at 
Berkeley Castle. 




R. Keene, 



JOHN OF GAUNT'S GATEWAY, TUTBURY CASTLE. 



Burton-on-Tren t. 



In 1345 Earl Henry was succeeded in the title and all the Lancastrian 
estates by his son Henry, who took the old Ferrers title of Earl of Derby^ 
and for his brilliant services was created Duke of Lancaster. He died in 
1360, and left t\vo daughters, Maud, wife of Ralph Lord Stafford, and Blanche, 



TUTBURY CASTLE AND THE PLANTAGENETS. I2J 

wife of his kinsman John of Gaunt, the son of Edward III., who became 
Duke of Lancaster, and the possessor of Tutbury and Newcastle-under- 
Lyme and Kenilworth, and eventually all the estate of the Dukedom. 

Blanche, the heiress of Tutbury, died at London, in the pestilence 
of 1369, leaving a son, Henry of Bolingbroke, born in 1366, and two 
daughters. In 1372 the Duke married Constance, daughter of Peter the 
Cruel, King of Castile. In her right he assumed the title of King of 
Castile, and returning to England, he gave her the choice of all his castles 
as a residence. 

During the ownership of the two Henrys, Tutbury went to decay. Its 
commanding position, however, together with its proximity to the extensive 
and picturesque forest, and the richness of its surrounding vales, commended 
it to the Castilian Queen, and her choice fell upon Tutbury. A thorough 
and lavish restoration of the castle followed, and it was speedily fitted up 
as a royal palace. Then ensued a period of prosperity for Tutbury hitherto 
unknown. The splendour of the Court, the regal magnificence and princely 
hospitality of its occupants, the throng of noble visitors, its bands of 
minstrels, and continuous festivities imparted a popularity and lasting fame 
to this period unequalled in the annals of Tutbury. 

Various were the devices of John of Gaunt to gain popularity. He 
created, or, as he professed, revived a custom of ancient tenure for the 
lordship of Wichnor, which required its lords, the Somervilles, who held 
under him, to keep a flitch of bacon hung in their hall, to be delivered 
yearly to the man or woman who for a year and a day had been married 
without quarrel or regret. A procession, with minstrels and trumpets, was 
the natural accompaniment of this rural festival, for so great was the duke's 
predilection for minstrelsy that troops of wandering musicians congregated 
at the Tutbury Court. These he reduced to order in a remarkable manner. 

In 1 38 1, by letters patent, in quite royal style, he proclaimed a Court 
of Minstrels, and appointed a king with sub-officers and a code of laws. 
From this eccentric fraternity arose the famous Tutbury bull-running, which 
remained a popular custom and a scandal for ages, and was not abolished 
until 1778. 



12S HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



All this " excellent fooling " may have been intended for the amusement 
of his foreign wife, and to cover his own prolonged absences in London, 
or in active service, but during his periodical visits it is pleasant to think 
that he may occasionally have brought hither his friend (subsequently his 
relative), Geoffrey Chaucer, his friendship for whom was one of the 
brightest features of his career. 

More assured, however, is the association of the youthful Bolingbroke, 
the popular idol of his time, with the halls of Tutbury and the glades of 
Needwood. He was heir to many castles, but, at least until his marriage 
in 1384, Tutbury, Newcastle, and Kenilworth would alternately be his English 
home. His first title of Earl of Derby was an accompaniment of the 
honor and castle of Tutbury, and many of his followers were young nobles 
of the Midlands. Later in life, Henry periodically lived at Monmouth and 
Kenilworth, but in his earlier years the country from Tutbury to Newcastle,* 
by the Roman Rikenield way, must have been tolerably familiar to him. 

How long Tutbury retained the regard of Constance the Duchess is 
uncertain. Before her death in 1394, however, she passed much of her 
time in London and in Normandy. 

Upon Henry of Lancaster's becoming king, Tutbury was annexed to the 
Crown. Its fame, however, was still maintained by the attractions of 
Needwood as a hunting ground, which, so late as the time of Henry VH., 
was a favourite royal resort. That monarch, it is said, left his name in 

* A remarkable description of the fortress at Newcastle has been preserved. It is a written entry in a volume 
of Chaucer's poems, printed in 1610. The entry may have been copied from a much older written statement, 
the last two lines being added by the copyist: — "There be manie that need be tould what John of Gaunt his 
Newcastle was, and will sore lament it now is not, to give the needy sojomner largess of bread, beef, and 
beer. Our grandames doe say that theire grandames did delight to tell what it had been, and how well it was 
counted off before theire daye ; althof they say onlie of it what they had beene tould ; as how that the 
Newcastle was no more nor 150 paces fro south to north, but well nigh two hundred from est to west ; and 
had two transepts and four bays, with dungen tower of twentie paces square, which rose in three stcrys of 
the full height of seventy feet : that it did stand over all the knoll in the middest of the picturesque vale 
and gentle riseing hills, verie delightful and riche in pastur and woodlands, and to the west and north rem- 
nants of diverse parkes belonginge. A low portal, and not welltlighted passage, did admit to the halle, very 
large and spacious, with roof loftie, and painted with devices, gallerie for the minstrels, and the walls clothed 
with geer of warfare, helmets, coates of mail armour, buflf jerkins like shirtes, and such like doublets. 
Wending a gloomy staircase did lead to the state rooms and beddchamber of the Prince, and other on the 
upper for companie. The drawbridge to the north did approche into the court, ninelie paces in length, with 
thirtie in the width, and south and west were two lesser. The walls outer had good buttresses to the height 
of thirty feet, and the whole was moer fytt as a statelie comfortable dwellinge then as a fortress of defence, 
cause of the rising landes south and este. It almoste now is all carried away, and Measter Sneyde doth 
hold the ground, and the mote, and the mills." 




S. Keene, 



TUTBURY CASTLE: RUINS OF STATE APARTMENT. 



Burton-on- Trent, 



TUTBURY CASTLE AND THE PLANTAGENETS. 



129 



the King's Standing, near Yoxall, as also in a charming story, which 
relates that, whilst hunting in the forest, the king became separated from 
his party, and lost his way. He at length reached the abode of a humble 
cottager, named Taylor, whose wife had become the mother of three 
children at a birth.* The occurrence aroused the King's sympathy, and he 
undertook the cost of educating the children, all of whom ultimately 
became learned divines. 

In its declining years this royal castle became the prison of the ill-fated 
Scottish Queen ; it was subsequently visited by James I. for pleasure, and 
by Charles I., both for pleasure and from necessity, and with his fall came 
the end of Tutbury as the home of kings. 




* This incident must have occurred early in Henry's reign, and some years after the children's birth, for the 
eldest son, Dr. John Taylor, became Rector of Sutton Coldfield in 1504. Subsequently (1520) he was Chaplain 
to Henty VIII., an Ambassador in 1525, Master of the Rolls 1528, and died 1534. 



fIDalvoiein an^ Ibanbsacrc. 




PON the road from Lichfield to Uttoxeter, near the Trent 
Valley station of Armitage, and visible to travellers by 
the flying trains to Ireland and Scotland, stands the 
ancient Hall of Handsacre. Venerable as is its external 
appearance, it yet embodies, in its walls and chimneys 
and its moat, survivals of a still more ancient building. 
Here the Handsacres were settled from a period shortly after the Conquest, 
and here they still lived when Bolingbroke became King. The whole 
neiorhbourhood is rich in beauty and in historical incident. It lies on the 
borderland of the forest, near to Hawkesyard, the embattled seat of the 
Rugeleys ; to Bromley, the Saxon home of Leofric the Wise ; to Armitage, 
whose church on the rock, overlooking the Trent, occupies the site of the 
hermitage from which its name is derived ; and to Mavesyn, long the 
possession of the descendants of Malvoisin the Norman. 

For many generations the Handsacres and the Malvoisins were not only 
neighbours, but friendly allies. Originally the Malvoisins were seated at 
Blithebury, where {icmp. Henry I.) Hugh Malvoisin founded a Benedictine 
priory, which was afterwards transferred to the priory of Black Ladies at 
Brewood. Subsequently the Malvoisins settled at Mavesyn, near the Trent, 
and here still remains an ancient gate house and great chamber, with 
ponderous timbers, said to have belonged to their moated manor house, 
now replaced by a last century edifice. 



MALVOISIN AND HANDSACRE. I3I 

That the Handsacres, whom Erdeswick calls a race of very brave knights, 
were not inferior in rank to the Malvoisins is shown by the marriage, 
about 1250, of Sir William Handsacre with Ada, the widow of Henry 
Lord Hastings, of Fillongley, daughter of the Earl of Huntingdon and 
niece of the great Earl of Chester. 

The friendly relations of the two houses, whose lands were divided only 
by the waters of the Trent, at length became changed. Disputes as to 
manorial mills have been common in all ages, and a dispute as to a mill 
on the river between the two lordships was the apparent cause of a feud, 
not only between the two lords but their tenants also ; for, according to 
Shaw, great animosities prevailed between the inhabitants north and south 
of the river concerning the mill rights, and, encouraged by the rancour 
of party" and the fury of rebellion, was to be terminated only by fire and 
sword, bloodshed and death. 

As early as 1382 Robert Maveyson had leased to John Hamond, fisher- 
man, his fishery in the Trent at Biyggewater, between Handsacre and 
Oxonholm Pool, and the miller, one Robert Mulner, got into dispute as to 
the boundary of the two parishes at the mill dam and floodgates. The 
dispute resulted in a feud and an afTray, ending in a riot, in which the 
mill was burnt and Lawrence de Frodesley, of the Handsacre party, was 
killed by the Malvoisians. 

The local animosities were, however, but too surely the result of partisan- 
ship in the national struggles. The feudal lord of Malvoisin's estates was 
Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, whilst Handsacre held under the Bishop of 
Lichfield, Richard Scrope. The brave Earl and his brother Thomas, the 
Archbishop of York and afterwards of Canterbury, were among the victims 
of King Richard's treachery and duplicity, whilst Scrope was appointed by King 
Richard, to the prelacy of York. The fact that Bolingbroke, who had but 
recently lived at Tutbury — which about the period of Malvoisin's marriage was 
at the height of its splendour — must have been personally popular in the 
neighbourhood, may have added zeal to the duty Robert Malvoisin owed 
to his feudal lord. 

On the other hand, Sir William Handsacre adhered to the son of the 



132 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Black Prince, by reason, probably, that his fealty was owing to the Bishop, 
Richard Scrope — whose father was King Richard's Chancellor and Keeper of 
the Great Seal — and the two knights must have taken opposite sides, when 
in 1399, Bolingbroke, deprived of his vast estates, suddenly returned from 
exile, and speedily relieved Richard of his crown, made him a prisoner at 
Flint Castle, and conveyed him to London. 

On this journey, by way of Lichfield, Bolingbroke probably proceeded by 
way of his stronghold at Newcastle-under-Lyme, and passed very near to 
Malvoisin's Manor House. At Lichfield, the retiring King nearly effected 
his escape, by creeping through the window of a tower, into a garden. 
He was, however, discovered, conveyed to London, and eventually to 
Pontefract, and Henry became King. 

Three years later, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and his son 
Sir Henry, renowned as Hotspur, who had been chiefly instrumental in 
Henry's accession, were offended at the treatment they received from the 
King. Revolt followed, a revolt planned with unusual care. A combination 
was effected with the partisans of Mortimer, Earl of March, the Yorkist 
heir to the throne ; also with the Scottish King, then at enmity with 
England, and with Glendower, the revolting Prince of Wales. A powerful 
army was raised, which marched southwards ; whilst King Henry, who had 
a strong army ready for active service in the field, at once proceeded to 
Burton-on-Trent. During his stay there, probably at Tutbury, intelligence 
came that Hotspur's forces were marching towards Shrewsbury, to join 
Glendower. 

Such was the state of affairs when Malvoisin and Handsacre assembled 
their little bands of tenantry, bowmen, billmen and horsemen, according to 
their degree. The muster was a hasty one. Malvoisin's object was to 
reach the King at Burton, or join him on his march ; Handsacre's to 
meet Percy's forces coming from the north. As the King expected rein- 
forcements at Bridgnorth, he would march along the Watling Street. The 
Percy party would probably be appointed to muster at Stafford. Handsacre 
did not, however, take the road through Rugeley, for the tradition is fixed, 
and all accounts agree, that the meeting with Malvoisin and the deadly 



MALVOISIN AND HANDSACRE. 



133 



struggle which ensued occurred on the north of the Trent, midway between 
the present modern high bridge and Malvoisin's house. The spot is pointed 
out as beneath two ancient oaks called Gog and Magog. 




GOG AND MAGOG. 

Various are the versions of the conflict. They all agree, however, in the 
main features, and are said to have been derived from an authentic account in 
Latin, preserved in the British Museum. The following is the description 
given by Erdeswick : 

Sir Robert Mavesine, Knight, slain at the battle of Shrewsbury, ex parte regis, as his 
monument in Mavesine Ridware saith, and well might be called Malvoisine (evil neighbour) 
for (as the report of the country is) going towards the said battle he met with his neighbour, 
Sir William Handsacre, Knight, going also towards the said battle, either of them being well 
accompanied with their servants and tenants, and upon some former malice as it might seem, 
or else knowing other to be backed by the contrary party, they encountered each other and 
fought as it were a skirmish, or little battle, where Mavesine had the victory ; and having 
slain his adversary went on to the battle, and was there slain himself. 



134 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



A few days later, on the 21st July, 1403, the partisans of the two houses 
fought their first battle. Fifty years later commenced the exterminating 
Wars of the Roses in the same cause, but no battle was more valiantly 
fought than that on the historic field near Shrewsbury, and in none was 
the carnage greater. Among the slain was Sir Robert Malvoisin, at whose 
hands Sir William Handsacre had so recently fallen the first victim of this 
great contention. 

Malvoisin's widow, Joan, erected an altar tomb in Mavesin church to her 
husband's memory. She also procured (14th May, 1407) from the Bishop 
of Lichfield, John Burghill, the successor of Scrope, a license to celebrate 
masses in the family oratory, and there is little doubt, that requiem for the 
soul of her husband was performed in the great chamber over the gateway, 
yet remaining. 

The untimely death of the two knights, doubtless, put a speedy end to 
the family feud ; indeed, the tragedy had a sequel partaking in some 
degree of the romance of the Montagues and Capulets. Sir Robert left 
two daughters, the youngest, Margaret, being then aged eleven. To her 
came wooing, William, the son and heir of the Handsacre knight, and 
about the date of the Bishop's license, became her accepted husband ; and 
Erdeswick tells us that she brought him a goodly estate in recompense of 
the death of his father, slain by hers. But here the romance ends. 

Having no son, Handsacre Manor passed in the female line, by marriage, 
to Nicholas Westcote, brother to the Westcote who changed his name to 
Lyttelton, and was father to the great Judge Lyttelton, and Mavesyn 
Rydware passed by the marriage of Margaret's elder sister to Sir John 
Carwarden, and remained in that family until Elizabeth'sr reign, when John 
Chadwick married the heiress, and John de Heley Malvoisin Chadwick is 
now the representative of the old family. 




KINVER. 



Ikinver anb Cannock: ^be IRo^al jforests. 




HE recreation of deer-hunting always ranked high with the 
Saxon kings and nobles, and in the days of the early 
Norman kings, by the creation of new forest laws, specially 
administered by itinerant justices, and of customs locally 
controlled by a retinue of officials, the preservation of 
royal hunting grounds became of serious importance to 
the English people. 

These customs have long faded from memory, and the laws are but little 
understood ; yet to the people of South Staffordshire they were of great 
moment. Large tracts of wood and waste long retained in the King's 
hands, but originally to some extent folk lands, over which the people had 
important common rights, were, after the Conquest, gradually extended and 
formed into defined districts, until at length, from the Dove to the Stour 
and the Severn, ^from Uttoxeter to Kidderminster, from Stafford to Sutton, 
nearly the whole of the wood and plain had been brought within the 



136 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



compass of one of its three great forests — the royal forests of Cannock and 
Kinfare, and the Earl of Derby's forest of Needwood. 

To the north of the county the vast stretches of heathland and moorland 
afforded but little cover for the beasts of the chase. Yet in the west the 
sylvan parts of Cheshire and Salop extended over their borders. Particularly 
was this the case north of Madeley, whilst at Leek the forest joined hands 
with the King's forest of Macclesfield. All this formed part of the great 
wood or lyme which for ages had formed an impenetrable barrier between 
the tribal folk of Cheshire and Stafford. 

No forest laws are known earlier than those attributed to Canute, and 
their authenticity has been seriously challenged as the invention of a century 
later. By these laws, although a freeman had the game upon his own 
land, he was punishable if he chased a beast of the forest, and if the 
offender was of a lower grade the punishment was greater ; whilst a bond- 
man so offending was outlawed, and for killing a royal beast his life was 
forfeit. A forest could be made or extended by the King alone. This was 
effected by a perambulation and defining of bounds under a royal commission, 
with proclamation throughout the shire. The afforested district was not all 
woodland, nor was it made waste, nor was all the land in the King's 
hands, although it would naturally include a considerable woodland which 
was the King's demesne. 

Of the Staffordshire forests, Needwood and Leek were granted to subjects, 
and therefore governed by local courts. The rights of the Earls of Chester 
in the forest Leek, or " Lech and Swythomlee," passed to the Abbot of 
Dieu-la-cres, and were subservient to the King's adjacent forest of Maccles- 
field, and special pains were taken by Edward L to prevent similar en- 
croachments to those made by the Bishops at Cannock, but this did not 
save his deer, and the abbey was supplied with venison from the forest. 

The limits of Kinver forest were very considerably extended in the time 
of Henry II., and the ultimate bounds were almost identical with those of 
the hundred of Seisdon. In the same King's reign Cannock forest 
boundary also underwent considerable extension south of Watling Street ; 
these extensions naturally caused great discontent. 



KINVER AND CANNOCK. 137 



In the year 1286, the ancient bounds of Cannock were thus defined by 
the Foresters and Verderers of " Cannok and Kynefare," and a Jury of 
twelve Knights and others : 

Beginning at the bridge of Finchespathe (near West Bromwich), by the Tame to Holbrook * 
by the Holbrook to the Vill of Walsall, thence to Bolestile (apparently near little Aston), 
thence to the Bourne (a tributary of the Black brook), by the Bourne to the high Road near 
the park of Drayton, and by that road, near Watling Street, as far as the Thame river f 
thence to the Trent, and by the Trent to the Sow (near Tixall), by the Sow to the river of 
Pencriz (excluding Stafford), by that river to the bridge of Covene, near the park of Brewode 
thence by the road to Pendeford, through the middle of the Fossmore to Oxeford (Oxley 
Bushbury), thence to Wolverhampton, through the middle of the town, and by the high Road 
as far as the bridge of Finchespath.t 

Thus, not only Lichfield City, and many townships, with part of Wolver- 
hampton, Walsall, and Wednesbury, but innumerable private manors were 
within the forest, and subject to its laws. 

There was, however, one notable exception. The Bishops of the diocese 
had among their great possessions parks at Wyrley, Packington, Brewood 
Heywood, and other places in the forest, and also an extensive chase, the 
name of which survives in Cannock Chase. King Richard granted special 
privilege to this chase, privileges which the Bishops had not been slow to 
extend, until eventually they became as potent in their chase as the Kings 
in their forest. They defied the officers of the forest, and even set up 
deer leaps (saltatorium), a clever device for enticing the King's deer into 
their enclosures without a corresponding facility for returning. A good 
Churchman, be he bishop, abbot, or monk, loved good venison, and the 
bishops' men, and even their bailiffs were not averse to occasionally pro- 
curing a hart or a buck from the royal forest. 

The mention of the Chase necessitates a passing reference to one of the 
most interesting incidents connected with the shire, the connection ot 
Canute, the Danish King of England, with Cnot, Canok, or Cannock. 
That the Saxon Kings had a house here has been stated by many 
authorities ; positive evidence, however, is given of the fact in the Pipe 

* Another Holbrook ran into the Tame at Perry Barr, and marked the bounds of Sutton Chase from Bolestile. 

t This was the road from Sutton to Tarn worth, and thus Drayton (originally a part of Sutton Chase), and 
also Tamworth were excluded. 

} Finchespath was near the high road, between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, it w«s in the lordship of 
West Bromwich, and led from Swan Village to the Tame, 



138 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Rolls for 1 157 of this house with a garden being at Radmore, near 
Beaudesert,* and investigations by Mr. W. H. Duignan very strongly 
indicate the position of the house to have been at Court Bank Cover, and 
together with the ancient monastery of Radmore in the vicinity of the Castle 
Ring, and the park of Beaudesert. t 




REMAINS OF ANCIENT MOAT, COURT BANK COVER. 

At the Domesday survey, Richard Chineu was the King's forester of 
Canoe, he also held part of the lordship of Kenilworth, which appears to 
have taken his name. The monastery of Radmore became a Cistercian 
Abbey, and, in 1154, was removed to Stoneleigh. The position at 
Cannock, though good enough for hermits, was unfit for an Abbot, who 
suffered from scarcity of food and the inroads of the foresters. 

The foresters who troubled the Abbot were a numerous company. The 
officers of the forest consisted of the Chief Forester or Steward of the 

* Salt's Collections for Staffordshire, vol. i., p. 34-35. 
t King's House and Priory of Radmore, by W. H. Duignan, Midland Antiquary, Dec, X884, vol. iii., p. 58, 



KINVER AND CANNOCK. I39 



king, the Foresters in fee — usually Knights, — the Riding foresters or Rangers, 
and an array of under-foresters or keepers. These controlled and protected 
the beasts of the forest, whilst the duties of Reguarders, Verderers, 
Agisters, and Woodwards concerned the woods, herbage, and wastes, the 
timber, fences, pannage, and hawks, also trespasses and offences by land- 
holders in the tillage or destruction of underwood, and the expediting of 
dogs, by maiming of the fore-foot. 

The land of every freeholder was thus subject to control, and, in return, 
he retained rights of free pasture for his cattle in the forest. 

The beasts of the forest, as we are told by the ancient rhyme, were 

four in number. 

" Whersoever ye fall by fryth or by fell, 

My dere chyld take heed how Tristrom doth you tell ; 

How many maner bestys of venery ther were, 

Lysten to your dame, and then shall you lere. 

Four maner bestys of venery ther are ; 

The first of them is the hert ; the second ys the hare, 

The Boore ys oon of them — the Wolff and not oon more." * 

Of the deer of the forest, the red deer and the roe are native to the 
soil. All were in every way distinct. They bore different names for 
each year ; thus, a stag was a calf, a brocket, a spayard, a staggard, and 
in the fifth year a stag or hart — the female a hind ; and a buck from a 
fawn became a pricket, a sorel, a sore, and in the fifth year a buck — and 
the female a doe. 

The close or fawning time was from loth June to loth July ; the hart 
or stag, and also the buck, were in season from Midsummer to the 14th 
September, and the hind and doe from 14th September to 2nd February ; 
the season of the roebuck was from Easter to Michaelmas, and of the roe 



* That the Wolf was not extinct, as has been oft stated, is shown by the following extract from the pleas 
of the forest for the year 1286, as extracted from the Public Record Office, by Major-General the Hon. G. 
Wrottesley ; printed in Vol. v. of the Collections of the Salt Society, a work of the greatest value and interest, 
to which we are indebted for a considerable part of the information in this chapter. It is presented by John 
de Clynton, Steward of the forest of Cannock, and by the Verderers, that a certain buck was killed by wolves 
in the forest, in 9 Ed. I. (1280), and it was fat ; the foresters had it skinned after it had been viewed by the 
Verderers, and it was salted and handed over to the keeping of Robert de la Putte, and the horns were given 
to John de Engleton to answer for the same ; and as he did not produce them before the justices he is in 
mercy. And William Trumwyn afterwards took the venison and consumed it in his own house, and now before 
the justices — contradicting their own presentment — they stated that he did not consume the venison in his own 
house, but gave it to the Lepers of Freford. The said William is, therefore, " quietus," and the Steward and 
four Verderers are in mercy. 



140 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



from Michaelmas to 2nd February. The hart or stag was the king of the 
forest, and if hunted by the King, and it escaped, it became a hart royal. 
Tradition has much exaggerated the punishment of deer stealers or male- 
factors in venison — the prosecution was one of three stages ; first, before a 
Court of Attachment, held every forty days, when the offender was released 
on pledge or bail ; second, before a Court of the Freeholders and 
Verderers, held thrice yearly, called the Swanimote, a Court distinctly 
Saxon in its origin and principle, here the prisoner was tried and put 
back for the Justices of the Forest to pass sentence. The Court of the 
Justices in Eyre, or travelling Justices, properly a triennial Court, was held 
at much wider intervals,* preceded with warrant, and heralded with pro- 
clamation, it performed its work without fear or favour, and tempered 
justice with mercy. It has left lasting records which would reflect credit 
on the administration of the law in any age. Peer and peasant, baron 
and boor, were treated with an equality which wins admiration, although 
some of the court's decisions may evoke a smile. The working of the 
forest laws, and the persons and offences with which they dealt will be 
best shown by a few cases and the decisions thereon, some of which show 
a fine indifference to the high position of the offenders, and an equal dis- 
regard to the power of the Church. 

In 1271, William de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and John, his brother, having taken a 
hind from the forest of Kinver, failed to appear when summoned, and the court ordered the 
sheriff to produce them. 

A friar and others of the Abbey of Combe, who many times during one season carried off 
the King's venison to a grange [i.e., a farm) of the Abbey at Trescote, Seisdon, also failed 
to appear ; the court ordered the sheriff to distrain the lands of the abbott. 

Baldwyn de Fryvyle and others of the household of the Bishop of Worcester took a stag 
and three hinds to the Bishop's Castle of Hartlebury— the Sheriff to produce them, and the 
Bishop to be prosecuted before the King. 

Walter de Bere and Walter Petit took a hind which was i?i front of the dogs of the King, 
and carried it away, and were in prison. Petit is pardoned because he is weak-headed, and 
Bere released for a fine, 13s. 4d. 

Many of the prosecutions show the state of anarchy and lawlessness in 

the Shire during the Barons' war, and it is incidentallly shown 

* The Justices' Court, which tried the cases from both forests, would appear from the perambulation reports 
to have been held at Wednesbury, a town convenient for the people of both districts. 



KINVER AND CANNOCK. 



141 



that Walsall Wood was entirely destroyed by the opposing factions.* 

Thomas de Bromlegh, a common malefactor of venison, and others, of the garrison of the 
Castle of Bruges [Bridgenorth,] under Hamon ie Strange, took a hind to the Castle. Two 
years previously, Thomas was in prison at Warwyk, for taking a stag, and for killing a 
forester's horse. Bromlegh's receiver, one William de LoddesdoTi, of Wolvrehampton, to be arrested. 

Roger le Strange, with the huntsman of John le Strange and others, were presented for 
taking venison in Kanok, 1271. [John had married a daughter of the Baron of Dudley, and 
Roger was subsequently a justice of the Forest ; both were of the King's party.] Present- 
ments were also made against the Bailiff of the Bishop of Chester (Lichfield), and the 
huntsman of Roger de Someri. 

James Andedelegh, his son. Chaplain, and Esquire, presented for taking a buck at Bentlegh, 
and a stag at Gaule. James is now in Ireland with King Edward, son of the King. 

Robert de Stanndon, with nine other persons, presented for coming with many others, who 
are dead — with Ralph Basset, who is likewise dead, on Wednesday before Christmas day, 1263, 
and taking 10 does, three bucks, two hinds, and a fecon, and carrying them to Ralph's house, 
at Drayton. Robert is in the Holy land, another with Andedelegh in Ireland, others can- 
not be found ; and one Richard de Wemme is pardoned for the soul of the King, because 
he is poor and a minstrel. 

In another case eleven persons, similarly charged, were said to be be- 
friended by Ralph Basset, so that no forester dared to attach them. Some 
were fined. One who had turned monk was at Wenlock ; the prior of 
Wenlock was ordered to produce him. Some could not be found, and 
were outlawed. Henry de Aumary was then a Hospitaller, and in the 
Holy Land ; others were bailed, and some outlawed. 

That the foresters were no respecters of rank, the following presentments 
will prove : 

Hamon Le Straunge (just rewarded by the King with Chartley Castle, at which he lived, 
and with other manors), for several offences. 

John de Clinton (stopping in ihe house of the Dean of Tamworth), for taking venison in 
Hopewas. (He was subsequently Steward of the Forest). 

Philip Marmyon, William de Honsacre, and the Lords of other Manors, for taking venison 
to Honsacre and Tamworth Castle. 

Several of these offenders were of the King's party. 

Presentments were made against Marmyon, for stealing deer in June, 
September, and also at Christmas of 1267. The September presentment 
shows that Avhen the King (Henry III.) had given to the said Philip a 
stag and a buck in the said forest, he proceeded to help himself to several 
others, which were carried to his Castle. 

* Salt Society's Collections, vol. v., p. 153. 



142 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



On Whit-Monday, 1273, Roger de Somery, Baron of Dudley, and his men, hunting in his 

Chase of Baggerugge, put up a Stag, it fled towards the forest (Kinver), it was shot but fell 

dead a hundred yards within the forest. Somery's servants drew it out and carried it to his 

house at Swynford. Roger to appear before the King, and it is added, because he did not 
satisfy the King, his fine is fixed at 200 marks if it pleased the King. 




VIEW FROM KINVER EDGE. 



The Court adjudicating upon this case was not held until 1286, when 
similar fines were imposed upon Philip Marmyon, for stealing deer in 
Alrewas, in July and at Christmas, 1272, 14 years previously, and upon 
Nicholas, Baron Stafford, for a like offence in 1285. 

The duties of the foresters like the modern gamekeeper entailed considerable 

personal danger. 

Walter de Clivedon, forester in fee of Teddesley, and Roger de Pecham, riding forester of 
Knoc, in March, 1267, found Thomas de Bromley a frequent transgressor in the forests of 
Stafford and Salop, in the park covers of Teddesley with bows and arrows, and challenged him, 
he defended himself in an oak tree and shot arrows at them, and they took him by force and 
delivered him to the keeper of the Castle at Bridgenorth (he was formerly a soldier of that 
Castle under the Barons), he was convicted, but John Gaunt of Wolverhampton, a receiver of 
his venison, was pardoned on account of his poverty. 

The following case which appears to show that the King (Edward I.) was 



KINVER AND CANNOCK. 



143 



hunting near Penkridge in 1275, is somewhat in contrast to the one in 
which the Baron of Dudley was heavily fined. 

When the huntsmen of the King were hunting in Gaueleye, 1275, they put up a stag and 
followed it into a wood in the park of Brewood, and John de la Wytemore shot it, and it fled 
out of the forest as far as the fish ponds of the Nuns of Brewood and it was dragged out 
dead, and John Gyffard of Chyllynton came up and claimed it, saying, he had pursued it — 
and they skinned it and John took half to his house, and the Nuns of Brewood had the other 
half. As they are poor they are pardoned, for the good of the King's soul, but Chyllynton 
and Wytemore are arrested and fined — for the stag although taken out of the forest yet it was 
the chase of the King, and put up by his dogs within the forest. 

Besides the pleas of vension, other offences against the forest laws largely occupied the time of 
the Justices. The destruction or lopping of wood, or ploughing grass land (tuasia) ; making en- 
closures or encroachments (purpreiiures) ; clearances of trees or brushes {assarts) ; and various other 
offences were very numerous and fruitful sources of enquiry ; as, also, were offences committed by 
the officers of the forest, who abused their powers, stole the King's deer, oppressed the people, 
levied taxes for various fictitious offences, and cut down and sold great numbers of the best 
and handsomest oaks in the woods. 




CANNOCK CHASE, NEAR BEAUDESERT. 
Aticicnt Eiicaiitpiuent. The Castle Ri}i_s;. 




Zbc Battle of 3\ovc Ibeatb. 




UST about the dawn of the new age — when Gutenberg and 
his companions had brought their labours to a practical 
issue in the invention of the printing press, and when 
constitutional government had been established on a firm 
basis in England, there arose a cloud, " little as a human 
hand," which soon spread over the land — a war-cloud, 
which divided the whole country into two opposing camps ; and very early 
in the strife the soil of Staffordshire was stained with the blood of the 
combatants. The first blow was struck in the first battle of St. Alban's, 
31st May, 1445, when the Yorkists had mastered the royal troops ; but a truce 
was patched up, and the King, who had been made prisoner, was released. 
Four years later, however, was fought what was in reality the first of 
those battles which were now to be continuous till the Yorkists regained 
the throne which, since the days of Bolingbroke, they had lost, and which was 
theirs by strict legal right. Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, had gathered 
together a powerful force, and marched towards Ludlow to join the Duke 
of York and made ready to assert the claims of the latter to the throne. 
" Whereupon," says Stow, " those that were about the King, and also the 
Queene, who lay at Eglishall,* mooved him to assemble a great power, 
whereof James Touchet, Lord Audley, was made chief, and had the leading of 
them into the field called Bloreheath, neere unto Mucklestone, by the which 
the said Duke and the Earle must needs passe." 

Blore Heath was at that time a large open waste (which is now enclosed), 
and here Lord Audley's forces, 10,000 in number, encamped for the night, 



Eccleshall, 



THE BATTLE OF BLORE HEATH. 



145 



on their march towards the rebel force, by the side of a little brook. The 
encounter took place on the 23rd September, 1459, and although Salisbury 

commanded but about half the 
strength of Lord Audley's army, 
he boldly determined to give 
battle, and in doing so resorted 
to a stratagem which gave him 
the victory. Under cover of the 
night he feigned a retreat, and 
retired in such peculiar order 
that at daybreak Audley, per- 
ceiving the opposing force, as he 
thought, in retreat, percipitately 
followed in pursuit, feeling that 
he had only to overtake and 
cut down a flying foe. Scarcely, 
however, had his vanguard crossed 
the brook, and so become en- 
meshed among trees, roots, rocks, 
and stones, which encumbered 
the deep bed of the streamlet,* 
than the Yorkist forces wheeled 
round upon them, and having 
them fairly entrapped, so com- 
pletely out-manoeuvred them that, after a five hours' struggle, in which 
the King's forces were assisted, it is said, by passing peasantry with 
all sorts of irregular weapons, and during which the little brook ran 
with blood, a victory was achieved for the white rose and the House 
of York. Lord Audley fell in the fight, and with him many brave 
knights and esquires ; the number of the slain being over 2400, the 

* Pennant says the stream was "not broad but deep;" and Rapin describes the condition of Audley's forces 
at the moment of Salisbury's stratagem as "some being over the river, others in the water, and others ready to 
pass." But a correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine, the Rev. W. Snape, curate of Keele, is disposed to 
fix the site of the battle some five or six miles away from that accorded to it by tradition, at a point soiiie< 
where between Heleigh Castle (the seat of Lord Audley) and the Camp and Byrth Hills. 




LORD audley's CROSS. 



146 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



greatest loss being among the Cheshire yeomen, who wore the Prince 
of Wales's badge of a silver swan, which the Queen had ordered to 
be distributed to this contingent of Audley's army. The retreating Lan- 
castrian force, however, contrived to carry off two sons of the Earl of 
Salisbury as prisoners — Thomas and John — either as they pursued the 
fugitives or returned home wounded. They were captured near Taporley, 
and imprisoned in Chester Castle, but they were soon afterwards liberated. 

The Earl of Salisbury enjoyed the fruits of his victory but a short time, 
being taken prisoner at the battle of Wakefield in the following year, and 
beheaded there at the close of the engagement. Three of his sons also fell 
in battle. The second son, Sir Thomas Neville, fell in the same battle as his 
father ; and Richard, the eldest son — the powerful Earl of Warwick, known 
in history as the King-maker — and the 3'oungest son John, Marquis of 
Montacute were both killed in the battle of Barnet in 1470. 

A cross of wood was erected on the field of battle, which, being thrown 
down in the last century by a cow rubbing against it, was re-erected on a 
massive stone pedestal by the Lord of the Manor, and still stands in a 
large field adjoining the road from Market Drayton to Newcastle-under- 
Lyme. On the east front of the pedestal is the following inscription : — 

on THIS SPOT 

WAS FOUGHT THE BATTLE OF 

BLORE HEATH 

IN 1459. 

LORD AUDLEY, 

WHO COMMANDED FOR THE SIDE OF LANCASTER, 

WAS DEFEATED AND SLAIN. 

TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY 

OF THE ACTION AND THE PLACE, 

THIS ANCIENT MONUMENT 

WAS REPAIRED IN 

1765. 
AT THE CHARGE OF THE LORD OF THE MANOR, 

CHARLES BOOTHBY SKRIMSHER. 

The loss of the battle was a severe blow to Queen Margaret who, with 
the object of intercepting the enemy in his march, had probably taken up 



THE BATTLE OF BLORE HEATH. I47 



her headquarters at Eccleshall, and adopted every precaution to ensure a 
victory for the House of Lancaster. The recorded descriptions of the fight 
scarcely accord with the changed features of the district at the present day. 
Yet there is no reason to doubt that the Queen had arranged to view the 
battle from the tower of Mucclestone Church, although it lay on the direct 
line of the Duke's march to the chosen field of battle, from which it is 
nearly two miles distant. The intervening land is now thickly wooded, but 
even when it was open heath-land the valley in which the carnage is said 
to have taken place would be hidden from her view. After the battle the 
queen is said to have again reached the protection of Eccleshall. This, 
however, must have been after the enemy had left the field, as it lay to 
the south-east and to journey towards it from Mucclestone, immediately 
after the engagement would have been to encounter the flying forces of 
Lancaster and their pursuers, as they fled nortftwards towards Chester. 

In commemoration of Queen Margaret's connection with Mucclestone 
Church a beautiful three-light window has been placed in the tower (in 
the original muUions) representing St. George, King Henry VI., and the 
Oueen. 




MUCCLESTONE CHURCH. 



Iking ]E^war^ tbe jfourtb anb tbe banner of ^amwortb. 




MONG the stories and legends common in old English folk- 
literature, none have met with greater favour than that 
class in which the sovereign is made to converse on terms 
of good fellowship with one of his humblest subjects. Of 
these, Henry VIII. and the cobbler, James I. and the tinker, 
and William III. and the forester are notable, but do not 
give so pleasing a picture of life in merrie England as that contained in 
the old ballad of King Edward IV. and the Tanner of Tamworth. 

Two copies of this ballad are extant in black letter, one of which is in 
the Bodleian Library, and is entitled "A merrie, pleasant, and delectable 
historie betweene K. Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth, . . . 
printed at London by John Danter, 1596." the other is of later date, and 
consists of a single sheet folio, in the Pepys collection. But although the 
earliest extant copy dates only from the last decade of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, the ballad was in existence long before that period. An entry of its 
title indeed appears in the Registers of the Stationers' Company as early as 
1564, and the ballad is referred to by Puttenham in his "Arte of English 
Poesie, 1589." 

The scene of this merry story was in all probability the road between 
Sutton Coldfield and Basset's Pole, on the way to Tamworth. On 
the road from Sutton Coldfield to Lichfield, about half-a-mile from the 
former, a byway leads down on the right hand side into a hollow in the 
direction of Ashfurlong, and then rises towards Basset's Pole, from whence 
it continues in a devious course to Tamworth. As the wayfarer of to-day 



THE TANNER OF TAMWORTH. 



149 



reaches the top of the hill near Basset's Pole, he descries on the left of 
the road the broad tower of Tamworth Church, more than four miles away, 
and looking backward over Sutton he may perceive the tower of Erdington 
Orphanage, and virtually of the outskirts of Birmingham — thus standing, as 




TAMWORTH ROAD, NEAR BASSET'S POLE. 



it were, at the parting of the ways between the two towns. Somewhere 
about this spot we may assume the tanner of the ballad to have reached, 
probably on his homeward journey from Birmingham market. For the art 
of tanning was probably more largely practised in Birmingham than in any 
town in the Midlands, and hence it became the great market for hides 
skins, and leather, and would be largely attended by buyers, as well as 
attracting those who had the raw hides to sell, from as far away even as 
Wales. Tanning was doubtless also practised at an early period at Tamworth, 
where an old-fashioned open yard near the Anker bears the name of the Tan 
Yard, albeit no tanning has been carried on therein for many years past. 
It may therefore be assumed that the tanner of King Edward's time found 



150 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



occasion to make frequent journeys between Tamworth and Birmingham, 
and that he was returning from one of these on the occasion which gave 
rise to the ballad, 
It was 

" In summer time, when leaves grow green, 
And blossoms bedeck the tree," 

and King Edward IV. had been hunting in the neighbourhood of Drayton 

Basset with his lords. Being near the Tamworth road, the King espied 

the " bold tanner," riding along on " a mare of four shilling " — an inferior 

sort of beast even for that time, when the average price of a horse was 

about thirteen shillings — with a " good cow-hide " for a saddle, the hide 

being in the rough state, with the horns and tail still attached to it. 

Such a sight, in the days " when England was merrie England still," and 

a King could forget the cares of State, and condescend to play a prank 

with one of his meanest subjects, prompted Edward to see whether some 

sport might not be got by a parley with the uncouth tanner ; and bidding 

his lords hide in the underwoods, he approached the traveller : 

" God speede, God speede thee," said our King ; 

" Thou art welcome, sir," sayd hee. 
" The readyest way to Drayton Basset 
I praye thee show to mee." 

To this request the tanner gave a ready answer : 

" To Drayton Basset woldst thou goe, 

Fro' the place where thou dost stand 
The next payre of gallowes thou comest unto. 
Turn in upon thy right hand." 

The place indicated would be a spot called Garroway Head, near to the 
entrance to Canwell Park. From Garroway Head, turning on the right 
hand, is a road leading direct to Drayton Basset, and it is traditionally 
affirmed that a gibbet adorned the spot at the junction of the roads ; but 
the equivoque in the tanner's brusque direction was far from pleasant to 
the King : 

" That isj an unready waye," sayd our King, 
" Thou doest but jest, I see : 
Now shewe me out the nearest waye. 
And I pray thee wend with n^ee." 



THE TANNER OK TAMWORTH. 151 



But the tanner had ridden far that day on his sturdy mare, Brock, and he 

was hungry and anxious to reach his home, and therefore unwilling to 

parley any longer : 

" Awaye with a vengeance ! " quoth the Tanner : 
" I hold thee out of thy witt : 
All day have I ridden on Brocke, my mare, 
And I am fasting yett ! " 

To this churlish reply, however, the King paid no heed, but bade him 
turn aside with him to Drayton Basset, where he might stay his appetite 
with viands of the best — "and," said the King, "I will pay thy fare." 

" Gramercye for nothing," the tanner replyde, 
" Thou payest no fare of mine : 
I trowe I've more nobles in my purse 
Than thou hast pence in thine." 

For with all the King's gay equipage, the tanner deemed him nought else 
but a robber. Men still talked of the doings of Robin Hood and his band 
of robbers, who had for so long held sway in the forests of England, and 
the " lytell gestes " of the bold outlaw and his followers formed no incon- 
siderable part of the oral literature of the common people ; hence it was not 
surprising that the tanner should eye his sovereign with suspicion, riding 
forth thus unattended on the public highway, and accosting one whose 
outward appearance betokened the wide difference in their stations. Nor 
was it an unknown thing even for persons of position to play the high- 
wayman. In 1342, two servants of a Lichfield merchant, as they journeyed 
towards Stafford with their horses were stopped on Cannock Chase by Sir 
Robert de Ridware and two of his squires, and robbed of the " spicery and 
mercery," with which their horses were laden. Nor was this an isolated 
case : *' Many other lords," says Jusserand,* " were like him [i.e., Ridware] 
surrounded by devoted men, ready for all enterprises. ... A lord well 
surrounded with his partisans considered himself as above the common law, 
and jvistice had no easy matter to make herself respected by him." The 
last representative of the Bermingham family who held the lordship of 



* " Wayfaring Life," p. 148. 



152 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Birmingham, was sent to the Tower on a charge of highway robbery, and 
although there is good ground for beHeving that he was falsely accused, it 
speaks volumes for the prevalence of such practices that such a charge 
should have been got up against him. 

Our tanner, therefore, may well have suspected that the man who had 
thus accosted him belonged to this class of " gentleman highwaymen," and 
that he had been entrapped into boasting of his well-filled purse. 

" What art thou," he sayed, " thou fine fellowe, 
Of thee I am in great feare, 
For the cloathes thou wearest upon thy backe 
Might beseeme a lord to weare." 

*' I never stole them," replied the King ; whereupon the tanner retorted 

that in that case 

" Thou playest as many an unthrift doth, 
And standest in midds of thy goode," 

that is to say, he bore his fortune on his back, in his costly garments, as 

many a courtier is said to have done on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. 

Having taken the measure of his man, as it were, the King now began 

to play with him in an encounter of wits. 

" What tydinges heare you," said the Kynge, 

" As you ryde farre and neare ? " 
" I hear no tydinges, sir, by the masse. 
But that cowe-hides are deare. " 

" Cowe-hides, cowe-hides ! What things are those ? 

I marvell what they bee ! " 
" What ! Art a foole ? " the tanner reply'd, 
" I carry one under mee." 

" What craftsman art thou ? " said the King, 

" I praye thee, tell me trowe." 
" I am a barker,* sir, by my trade, 
Nowe tell me what art thou ? " 

( am a poore courtier, sir," quoth he, 

" That am forth of service worne ; 
And faine I wolde thy prentise bee, 
Thy cunninge for to learne." 

* That is, a tanner. 



154 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



" Marry, heaven forfend," the tanner replyde, 
" That thou my prentise were ; 
Thou woldst spend more good than I shold winne, 
By fortye shilling a yere." 

The King was in a merry mood, and not to be balked of his sport ; so 

he proposed an exchange of horses with the tanner. The bargain would 

seem to be with the tanner, yet he was unwilling to exchange his sorry 

"mare of four shilling" for the King's horse, except he had something to 

boot. 

" What boot wilt thou have ?" our King reply 'd, 

" Now tell me in this stound ;" 
" Noe pence, nor halfpence, by my faye. 
But a noble in gold so round." 

In spite of his demand of a gold noble to boot, however, the tanner 

still held to the belief that the King was a penniless adventurer, and when 

Edward tendered him " twentye groats of white moneye " his surprise was 

as great as his former incredulity had been : — 

" I would have sworne now," quoth the tanner, 
" Thou hadst not had one pennie," 

With the King's horse and twenty groats to boot, the tanner was still 

unwilling to part with his cow-hide, and the exchange having been made, 

he threw the hide over the richly-caparisoned horse, and, with the help or 

the King, mounted into the saddle, marvelling much as he did so, "whether 

it were gold or brass, and exclaiming : — 

"When I come home to Gyllian, my wife, 
She'l say I am a gentilmon." 

But when the noble steed saw the cow's horns and the tail, which were 
still attached to the hide, it became restive and bolted, with the un- 
fortunate tanner on his back. 

" The tanner he pulled, the tanner he sweat. 
And held by the pummHl fast ; 
At length the tanner came tumbling downe : 
His neck he had well-nigh brast." * 

" Take thy horse again with a vengeance," he said, 
" With mee he shall not byde." 

* Broken. 



THE TANNER OF TAMWORTH. 1 55 

" My horse would have borne thee well enough," said the King, " but 
he knew not of thy cow-hide ; " but if the tanner will insist on changing 
steeds again, 

" By the faith of my bodye, thou jolly tanner, 
I will have some boote of thee." 

This was turning the tables on the hard-bargaining tanner. He had 
taken twenty groats of the King, but the King would have nought less 
than twenty pounds for the exchange. The tanner's boasted wealth 
amounted only to one-and-twenty groats beside the twenty he had from 
the King. 

" Here's twentye groats out of my purse, 
And twentye I have of thine : 
And I have one more which we will spende 
Together at the wine." 

But the King set a bugle to his lips, and blew a blast thereon, which 
brought up the lords and knights who had been in hiding. The sight of 
the gathering throng, spurring in from all sides, seemed to confirm the 
tanner's first suspicion. He may have heard the story of Sir Robert de 
Ridware and the Lichfield mercers, or some similar incident, and concluded 
that these were the robber-chief's retainers. 

" Nowe out, alas !" the tanner he cryde, 
" That ever I sawe this daye ! 
Thou art a strong thiefe, yon come thy fellowes 
Will beare my cow-hide away." 

" These are no thieves," said the King, 

" They are the lords of the north countrey, 
Here come to hunt with mee." 

" And soone before our King they came. 
And knelt downe on the grounde ; 
Then might the tanner have beene awaye, 
He had lever than twentye pound." 

For he expected no less than that he himself should occupy the next 
gallows, which he had jocularly allotted to the King. 



ic;6 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



"A coUer, a coUer here," sayd the King.* 
Then would the tanner 

" lever than twentye pound 

He had not beene so nighe ; " 

for he deemed that " after a coller cometh a halter." " I trowe," said he, 
"I shall be hang'd to-morrowe." 

" Be not afraid, Tanner," said our King i 
" I tell thee, so mought I thee, 
Lo, here I make thee the best esquire 
That is in the North countrie." 

" For Plumpton-parke t I will give thee. 
With tenants faire beside : 
'Tis worth three hundred markes by the yeare. 
To maintain thy good cowe-hide." 

The tanner, thus relieved of his fears, was prompt in expressing his 
gratitude to the King, and his readiness to do suit and service to his lord 
in such manner as best befitted his calling, in accordance with the custom 

of the times. 

" Gramercye, my leige," the tanner replyde, 

" For the favour thou hast me showne ; 
If ever thou comest to merry Tamworth, 
Neates leather shall clout thy shoon. 

So ends the ballad, which, from the strong local colour which pervades 
it, must undoubtedly have been written by one who, if not actually a 
Staffordshire man, must have been intimately acquainted with the locality 
which forms the scene of the incident recorded, as well as with the 
surrounding neighbourhood and its inhabitants. 



* This stanza does not appear in the extant text of the ballad, but is restored from Selden's " Titles of 
Honor," being considered by that learned author good enough evidence for the fact that one mode of creating 
an esquire at that time was by the imposition of a collar. 

t There was at that time a manor of Plumpton not far away, which in Dugdale's time was "known onely 
by certain grounds lying on the east side of Kingsburie parish," whereof one Walter de Plumpton was possessed 
{lemfi. Hen. IV.), who held it by a Danish Axe " which," says Dudgdale, " being the very charter whereby the 
said land was given unto one of his ancestors, hung up for a long time in the Hall of the capital messuage 
belonging thereto." In Henry IV. 's time " Plumpton-fields," as it was then called, consisted of one hundred 
acres of land, forty acres of wood, and forty acres of moorland.'/ 




HASELOUR HALL. 




^he i£ve of Boewortb fiel^: 1Ricbmon^'0 flDarcb 
tbrouGb StafforD6btre. 

LTHOUGH the momentous battle which marked a turning 
point in the history of our country was fought in a 
neighbouring shire, many of the chief points of interest are 
associated with the history of Staffordshire, notably the fact 
that Henry Richmond's forces marched through our county, 
and twice, at least, on their way to the scene of the 
conflict, pitched their camp within its borders, and the preliminaries on the 
part of Richmond were deliberated upon and arranged therein. About the 
same time that Sir William Stanley, with his Cheshire forces, had 
marched towards Stafford, halting at the old stronghold at Newcastle, 
Henry had landed with his followers at Milford Haven, and from thence 
made his way North-Eastward to Shrewsbury, before Richard considered the 
demonstration of his rival worthy of serious attention. The King was at 
this time in the north, hence Henry's determination to make his way 



IS8 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



towards the North Midlands, instead of to London, as he had at first 
proposed to do ; and from Shrewsbury he marched with his forces to 
Newport, and thence to Stafford. From Stafford, Richmond proceeded to 
Lichfield, availing himself of the opportunity of augmenting his forces from 
among the many who were disaffected towards the King. On the i8th of 
August, 1485, he sent forward his troops to Tamworth, a march of about 
seven miles. The way led across one end of the open gorsy common 
called Whittington Heath, and thence on through the overhanging woods 
of Hopwas, and along the hillside, fragrant with the wild hops which 
border the roadway and give their name to the village of Hopwas. At 
this point the broad tower of Tamworth Church would come into view, 
with the spreading common, which was to be the site of their camp. 
This was undoubtedly the " plain near Tamworth " of Shakespeare's 
Richard HI. It lay between Coton and Tamworth, and a part of it still 
exists in the Staffordshire Moor, which is now the only remaining portion 
of common land on this side of the town. In all probability this moor 
at that time extended to the roadside leading into Tamworth from Lich- 
field, and bordered the road for nearly a mile and a half ; hence it would 
be obviously the most suitable place for an encampment of this extent. 

And, now, we come to a mysterious and romantic episode in the history 
of Henry Richmond's progress through the country. It is said that, 
having sent his troops on to Tamworth, he followed with an escort of 
twenty light-horsemen, but that on the way between the two towns he 
lagged behind his escort, and entirely lost sight of them. It was near 
dark, and as he followed on in order to catch up with his body-guard, he 
missed his way, and so wandered on, fearing to ask his way or to declare 
himself, lest he should fall into the hands of Richard's scouts, who were 
spread throughout the country. He was thus obliged to dismount, and 
conceal himself. When day broke he made his way quickly to Tamworth, 
where he was received with great satisfaction by his followers, who had 
been greatly perturbed at his prolonged absence. Henry, we are told, 
considered it impolitic to tell the true story of his adventure, lest it 
might damp the ardour of his soldiery, and, therefore, said that he had 



THE EVE OF BOSWORTH FIELD. 



159 



turned aside to an appointed tryst to receive important intelligence from 

his secret friends. 

Such is the commonly accepted version of this story, but there is reason to 

believe that Henry's explana- 
tion to his followers was the 
true one The road from 
Lichfield to Tamworth is per- 
fectly straight and plain, up to 
within a mile and a half of 
the latter place, and from 
that point the plain on 
which Henry's forces were 
encamped would lie before 
him, while the church and 
castle of Tamworth, as well 
as the town itself, would be 
plainly visible. Moreover, 
Henry was not the man to 
court danger by needlessly 
severing himself from his 
escort in an unknown dis- 
trict. It is more than prob- 
able, therefore, that he turned 
aside, as he himself said, 
to confer with his friends. 
Elford was at that time 
the property of the near 

kinsmen of Thomas, Lord Stanley, who had become the third husband of Henry's 

mother, Margaret Beaufort ; and this place might easily be reached by the royal 

* We are indebted to H. Paget, Esq., of Elford, f.)r the following description of this interesting old tree, 
which must have been in its prime when Sir John Stanley UveJ at the Old Manor House of Elford: — "The 
'Slang Oak' is situated in a field about il^ miles from the village of Elford, and about a mile from the Old 
Manor House, which was turned into a farm when the Manor House was moved nearer the river. The exact 
date of this change is not known, but it was probably prior to the reign of Henry VI H. This old tree 
undoubtedly, was one of those which stood in the Deer Park which in those days surrounded the Manor House." 




C. E. IVeale, 'I'amivnrth. 

"THE SLANG OAK," NEAR ELFOKH.* 

{Said to have been in existence over a than sand years.') 



l6o HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



wanderer, by diverging from the main road, either at Whittington Heath, 
nearly a mile from the village of Whittington, or at Coton, near Hopwas, 
where the bend occurs in the road to Tamworth, by way of Comberford. 
Is it not probable, therefore, as Dr. Shirley Palmer suggested,* " that the 
noble lady (Margaret) would, with the natural anxiety of a mother, repair 
thither to meet and embrace the son, whom the result of the approaching 
conflict would either elevate to a throne, or consign to eternal exile, or a 
violent and perhaps ignominious death ? " Perhaps at this meeting he may 
have received intimation of the tryst at Atherstone where the Stanleys — 
Thomas and William — were to meet him on the following day. 

On his arrival at Tamworth, it is said, he found his followers in a state of 
panic at his prolonged absence ; and to make known to the people that he 
had arrived in safety, he rode publicly through the streets of the town. 
Having thus allayed their fears, he again left his troops, and repaired to 
Atherstone with a few chosen friends as his escort, to meet his stepfather. 
Lord Stanley, and Sir William Stanley, in order to devise plans with 
regard to the impending battle. This memorable meeting is said by Hutton 
to have taken place in a little field called the Hall Close, " situated one 
hundred yards behind the ' Three Tuns,' joining the Coleshill Road on the 
left, through which the canal now passes." 

Conflicting statements render it difficult to decide whether Henry returned 
again to Tamworth, or whether, being some seven or eight miles nearer to 
the opposing force, he " slept one night at least at Atherstone," as Hutton 
says he did, and was there joined by his followers, and proceeded on his 
way towards Bosworth Field. Shakespeare accepts the general statement 
that he returned again with his escort to Tamworth, and makes him refer 
to his conference with the Stanleys in that stirring address to his soldiers 
on the " plain near Tamworth," which is the scene of Act v.. Scene ii., of 
his " Richard the Third." He says : 

" Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends, 
Bruised underneath the yoke of tj^ranny, 
Thus far into the bowels of the land 

* In the appendix the "History of Tamworth," by C. F. Palmer, 1845, p. Ixii. 



THE EVE OF BOSWORTH FIELD. l6l 



Have we march'd on without impediment, 

And here receive we from our father Stanley 

Lines of fair comfort and encouragement. 

The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar. 

That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful vines, 

Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough 

In your embowell'd bosoms, this foul swine 

Lies now even in the centre of this isle. 

Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn : 

From Tamworth thither is but one day's march. 

In God's name, cheerly on, courageous friends, 

To reap the harvest of perpetual peace 

By this one bloody trial of sharp war." 

Saturday, August 20th, was spent in marching, by way of Fenny Drayton, 
to Shenton. Here the opposing forces lay encamped in sight of each 
other all through the ensuing Sunday. On the following morning, Monday, 
August 22nd, 1485, the two armies met in conflict on the plain called Red- 
more, three miles from Bosworth and eleven from Leicester. Although so 
many of Richard's followers had deserted him, the Stanleys and their forces, 
to all outwardly seeming, still stood loyally by him, as in glittering 
panoply, he rode forth to meet the Welshman — the " paltry fellow," whose 
power to harm him he had so contemptuously discredited. But at the out- 
set of the conflict Thomas, Lord Stanley, abandoned the King ; and when 
in the crisis of the battle Sir William Stanley passed over to Richmond's 
side, the desperate King, with a cry of " treason ! treason ! " plunged into 
the thickest of the fight, towards where the Lancastrian standard floated 
proudly in the breeze, and fell in the very presence of his hated rival, slain, 
it is said, by a Rudyard, of Rudyard in Staffordshire. His crown, all 
battered and bloodstained, was found under a hawthorn bush, and was 
brought thence by Sir William Stanley, and placed on the head of Henry 
Richmond, amid the cheering of the soldiery who had followed him on his 
weary march from Milford Haven "thus far into the bowels of the land." 

" The shouts that rent the air when Stanley placed the battered crown 
upon his (Henry's) head, after the bloody day at Bosworth, were not only 
the expressions of joy and triumph on the completion of a well-won victory, 
they were the words of consolation and hope, which the nation dared now 



1 62 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



to utter, after many years' civil distraction and strife, brought to an end 
by the death of the last of the Plantagenets, who if he lived an ambitious 
tyrant, died at least a brave and gallant soldier." * 

For in this rude coronation scene, amid the carnage of the battle-field, 
the Wars of the Roses, which had for 30 years divided England into two 
opposing camps of Lancastrians and Yorkists, came to an end, and that 
illustrious reign was inaugurated in which was witnessed the revival of learning 
and of the arts of peace, and the end of the dark ages of mediaeval ignorance. 

Henry was not slow to reward those who had helped him or who had 
rallied to his standard in the march from Milford Haven, and in the long 
list of grants made by him to his supporters during the first year of his 
reign are not a few Staffordshire manors, oflfices, and emoluments. A few 
of these may be enumerated. To his step-father, Thomas, Lord Stanley, 
he granted the offices of steward and master of the chase of Sutton, with 
the keepership of the forest there, in the counties of Warwick and Stafford, 
with the appointment of all inferior officers ; also the office of " master 
forester and steward of all the game northwards beyond Trent.'' To 
Elizabeth Woodville, the widowed queen of Edward IV., whose daughter 
he afterwards married, he granted a long list of fees from holders of crown 
properties, and among them " 11 6s. out of the farm of the moiety of the 
town of Tamworth." To Humphrey Stanley he gave '* the custody of the 
herbage and pannage of the hays of Allerwas (Alrewas), Chesteleyn, 
Oggeley, Ganneley, and Bentley, within the Forest of Cannock ; " also the 
offices of steward of the town of Walsall, and parker of the park of 
Walsall. To Sir James Blount, " for his services in the kingdom of 
England, and in the parts beyond the sea," Henry gave the offices of 
steward and Surveyor of the honor, castle, and lordship of Tutbury, and 
constable of all the lordships and manors on the same honor ; also the 
office of master forester or warden and keeper of all the forests and chases 
belonging or pertaining thereto. Among other Staffordshire grants made 
by Henry, we find two appointments to the hospital of St. John the 

* Introduction to" lAaXtnsXs for a History of the Reign of Henry VII." Edited by the Rev. W. Campbell, 
1873- 



THE EVE OF BOSWORTH FIELD. 



163 



Baptist at Stafford, the one of John Menwarying, chaplain, " to have 
custody of the hospital," and the other of " Master John Browne, one of 
the masters in Chancery, of the Free Chapel beside the town of Stafford, 
called the Chapel of St. John." " To William Chetwyn of Ingestie, co. 
Stafford, Esq," he gave the office of " parker or keeper of le Lytyll 
Park and de la More Park, called Stafford Parks," also the lease of two 
watermills in Stafford. Nor did he allow the services of his humbler 
followers to go unrewarded. To Richard Stapull and Thomas Gaywode, 
two of the yeomen of the guard, he gave to the first the office of Bailiff 
of Walsall, and to the second the offices of Porter of Stafford Castle and 
Bailiff of ' Mawdeley ' (Madeley), and Borlestone, in the same county. To 
John Holford he gave the office of Bailiff of Newcastle- under-Ly me, and to 
John Badely, son of Henry Badely, the presbytery of the Hospital of St. 
Leo in the same town. To John Wylde he gave the office of Bailiff of 
Tutbury and the custody of the park called the Castelhay ; and to Thomas 
Burneby an annuity of ten marks out of the revenues of Tutbury. These 
may suffice as examples of the rewards by the victor in whose person the 
throne reverted once more and finally to the House of Lancaster. 




ELFORD CHURCH. 
Tombs of the Ardernes and Statileys. 





^be noble 1bou6e of Stafford, 



N the year 1444, or nearly four centuries after the first 
Norman King had made his follower, Robert de Tonei, the 
feudal lord of our county town, Humphry, Earl of Stafford, 
the eleventh in descent from de Tonei, and described in 
that year as the Right Mighty Prince Humphry, Earl of 
Buckingham, Hereford, Stafford, Northampton, and Perche, 
Lord of Brecknock and Holderness, was, for his great services to Henry 
VI., created Duke of Buckingham, with precedence over all other dukes. 

A reference to the pedigree will show the alliance of the Staffords with 
the equally ancient Staffordshire houses of the Bagots, the Bassets and the 
Camvilles of Clifton ; from the latter connection descended the Ardens and 
Stanleys of Elford. Another offshoot of the stock produced John, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury {temp. Henry VI.), and also the two Staffords made 
famous by Shakespeare in their engagement with Jack Cade and his 



THE NOBLE HOUSE OF STAFFORD. 1 65 

followers, and whose descendants became Earls of Devon ; again, by other 
younger sons, the earldom of Wiltshire and the barony of Bourchier were 
added to the honours of the Staffords. 

Other Norman families achieved high rank and power with greater rapidity, 
but the rise of the Staffords was more steadily maintained. Edmund, the 
seventh in descent from Tonei, was in 1299 created Baron Stafford, and his 
son Ralph, Earl Stafford and K.G. ; the latter married the heiress of the 
Earl of Gloucester, and re-built the Castle of Stafford, whilst his two sons, 
the ninth in descent, married, the one, a daughter of Henry Plantagenet, 
Earl of Lancaster, sister of Blanche, the wife of John of Gaunt ; and the 
other son, Hugh (second Earl), a daughter of the Earl of Warwick. All 
these Staffords were famous in war, and had fought in Scotland and Wales, 
at Cressy, and in the Holy Land. 

Robert de Tonei of Stafford = Avice de Clare, 
founder of Stafford Castle 
on its present site ; buried 
in the Priory of Stone. 



I I 

Nicholas de Stafford = Matilda. Nigel Stafford, ancestor 

/■?>«/. Henry I. I of the Gresleys, 



Robert = Avicia, 
died 1176. 

I 



Robert Millisent = Hervey Bagot. 

d. s. p. I 



Hervey (Bagot) de Stafford = Petronella, daughter Sir William Stafford, Kt. 

died 1237. I Wm. Ferrers, Earl 

Derby. 



Hervey. died 1241. Robert =Alice Corbett. 

died 1282. I 



Nicholas = 

killed in I 

Wales, I 

1287. I 



Edmund, = Margaret, daughter of 



created 

Baron 

Stafford, 

died 1308. 



Ralph, Lord Basset. 



Ralph, K.G. = Margaret, only daughter of Richard Stafford, 

created Earl I Baron Audley, Earl of Clifton Camville. 

Stafford, Gloucester. 

1351. I 



i66 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Ralph, K.G. (Son of Edmund) = Margaret 



I 
Ralph, = Maud, daughter 
d. s p. Henry of 

Lancaster, Earl 
Derby. 



"Hugh, =Phillipa, daughter 



2nd Earl, 
Crusader, 
died 1386. 



Earl Warwick. 



Margaret, married 

Sir John Stafford, 

ancestor Earls of 

Devon. 



Ralph, 

murdered 

1385. 



I 

Thomas, = 

3rd Earl 

d. s. p. 

1392. 



Lady Anne Plantagenet, 

daughter of Thomas of 

Woodstock, Duke 

Gloucester. 



I 
William, 
4th Earl 
d. s. p. 

I39S- 



Edmund, =Lady Anne, 
5th Earl, I his 

killed at | brother's 
Shrewsbury, I widow. 
1403. I 



I 

Hugh, 

killed at 

Shrewsbury, 

1403. 



Several 
daughters. 



Humphry, 6lh Earl =Lady Ann Nevill, 



created Duke of 
Buckingham, 1444 ; 
killed at Northamp- 
ton, 1460. 



daughter of 

Ralph, EarlWest- 

moreland. 



Humphrey 

killed at 

S. Albans, 

1455- 



; Margaret, daughter of 

Edmund, Duke 

Somerset. 



John, Karl of 
Wiltshire. 



Henry, 2nd Duke, 

beheaded at 
Salisbury, 1483. 



Catherine River.-; 
sister of Eliza- 
beth, Queen of 
Edward IV. 



Edward, = Lady Alianore Percy, 
restored Duke of I daughter of Henry, 

Buckingham, | Earl Northumberland, 

beheaded on I 
Tower Hill, 1521. 



I 

Anne, 

married 1st, Edmund, Earl Mortimer; 

2nd, John Holland Earl 

Huntingdon. 



I 
Sir Henry = Margaret, daughter of John, 
Duke Somerset, widow 
Edmund Tudor, and mother 
Henry VII. 



I 
Catherine = John Talbot, 
Earl of 
Shrewsbury. 



Henry, 
Earl of Wiltshire. 



Henty, =Ursul.T, daughter of 

Sir Richard Pole 

and Margaret 

Plantagenet, and 

sister of Cardinal 

Pole. 



restored in blood 
as Lord Stafford, 
1547, with Staf- 
ford Castle ; died 
1562- 



Elizabeth, 

married 

Duke 

Norfolk. 



Catherine, 

married Earl 

Westmoreland. 



Mary, 

married 

Lord 

Bergavenny. 



Edward, = Mary, daughter of 
died I Edward, Earl 
1603. Derby. 



I 
Edward, =t Isabel 
died I Forster. 
1625. 



Richard Stafford = 
a//,7S Floyde. I 



Walter. 



Dorothy, 



Ursula = Walter Erdeswick. Dorothy. 



I 
Roger Stafford. 



Jane Stafford. 



Edward =.^nne Wilford. 
died before his I 
father. 



Henry, 
d. s. p. 1637. 



Mary= Sir William Howard, 
son of Earl Arundel. 



* Died at Rhodes returning from the Holy Land, and buried at the Priory of Stone. Leland says : " There 
wer dyverse tumbes of the lordes of Stafford in Stone Priory, made of alabaster. The images that lay on them 
were, after the suppression of the house, caryed to the Freers Augustine in Forebridge, a/ias Stafford grene." 

t Said to have been his mother's chambermaid. She was the " ould Ladye Stafford " who defended Stafford 
Castle in 1643. 



THE NOBLE HOUSE OF STAFFORD. 167 

The children of Hugh, tenth in descent, were— Jirst, Ralph, murdered in 
1385, by John Holland, half-brother of Richard IF. ; second, Thomas, the 
third Earl, who married Anne, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of 
Gloucester ; th'rd, William, the fourth Earl (the latter two dying young) ; 
fourth, Edmund the fifth Earl, who, in 1398, married Anne, widow of his 
brother Thomas ; and fifth, Hugh. Both Edmund and Hugh were killed 
at Shrewsbury, 1403, fighting for Henry IV. Of the daughters, Margaret 
became the wife of Ralph Nevill, the powerful Earl of Westmoreland, whilst 
others married Michael de la Pole, Thomas, Earl of Kent, and John, Lord 
Ferrers of Chartley. 

When Earl Edmund was slain at Shrewsbury, his only son, Humphry, was 
an infant, whose active life began only with the accession of the sixth Henry. 
Throughout his life he was a Lancastrian, notwithstanding his having 
married the Earl of Westmoreland's daughter, the Lady Anne Nevill. This 
lady being sister to "the Rose of Raby " and to the Earl of Salisbury, was 
consequently aunt to Edward IV., and to "The King Maker." 

In 1444, upon occasion of the King's marriage, he was created precedent 
Duke of Buckingham, and in 1460 was slain at the disastrous battle of 
Northampton, his eldest son, Humphry, having been killed five years earlier, 
1455, at the battle of St. Alban's. 

The alliances of the Staffords with the houses of York and Lancaster, 
have a peculiar interest ; whilst Duke Humphry married a Yorkist his two 
sons married daughters of the Lancastrian Beauforts. Humphry, the elder 
son, wedded Margaret, daughter of Edmund, fourth Duke of Somerset, she 
being then the widow of Edmund Tudor, and mother of Henry of Richmond, 
afterwards Henry VII. Again, Henry the second duke, grandson of Duke 
Humphry, being ward to Edward IV., was brought up by the King's 
sister and married to Catherine Rivers, sister of Elizabeth the Queen of 
Edward IV. 

During the twenty years of the Yorkist supremacy, Henry was closely 
attached to the court, and mainly by his aid Protector Richard was enabled 
to mount the throne. Richard's son was to have married " high-reaching 
Buckingham's " daughter, but the son died, and the Duke's sympathies 



1 68 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



turned towards Henry of Richmond, whom he actively conspired to place 
on the throne. Betrayed by an old servant of the Stafford family— one 
Bannister, of Wem — he was beheaded by the wary Richard in Salisbury 
Market Place, 1483, without trial, and his widow Catherine became the wife 
of Jasper Tudor, uncle to Henry VU, 

The triumph of Bosworth field was also the triumph of the Staffords and 
the Stanleys, and Edward the son of Henry was speedily restored to the 
dukedom, and to all the honours of the Staffords. In rank and wealth 
and greatness the house was now at its zenith. Its decline, however, was 
to be more rapid than its rise. Duke Edward offended Cardinal Wolsey ; 
the affront is thus related : — The great Churchman dipped his hands into a 
bason of water, held by the Duke for Henry VIII. Buckingham resented 
this by pouring the water into the Cardinal's shoes, whereupon Wolsey 
threatened " to stick to his skirts," and kept his word. Buckingham 
answered the threat by appearing at Court skirtless, but Wolsey bided his 
time and eventually effected his object. By the false evidence of a discharged 
steward, the Duke was charged with treason, an intention to assassinate the 
King and ascend the throne. Absurd as was the charge, clear as was the 
refutation, these availed him not. The life of Buckingham's father was 
lost in helping Richmond to the throne, but Richmond's son, upon a silly 
pretext, sent Buckingham to the block. 

A trite record of this event, which took place 15th May, 1521, is con- 
tained in the comment of the German Emperor, Charles V., who upon 
hearing of the execution, exclaimed : "A butcher's dog has killed the finest 
buck in England." The King seized the Duke's vast possessions and 
wealth, and thus for ever destroyed the princely splendour of the great 
house of Stafford. 

The wife of Henry, the son of the last duke, was Ursula, daughter of 
Sir Richard Pole and Margaret, the last of the Plantagenets, daughter of 
the Duke of Clarence. After beheading his father, the King granted Henry 
various Staffordshire Manors. Twenty years later, he also beheaded Margaret, 
Ursula's mother, and afterwards gave him the castle and town of Stafford, 
with the title of Lord Stafford. This title continued for four generations 



THE NOBLE HOUSE OF STAFFORD. 



169 



in the line of their eldest son, Edward, but on failure in 1637 of the 
main line it reverted to the family of Richard, their second son, namely, 
to his son, Roger, then sixty-five years of age, and unmarried. This Roger 




STAFFORD. {Front an Old Print.) 



was occupying a very humble position in Shropshire. Early in life he had 
changed his name to Floyd, having been, it is presumed, reared by a 
person of that name, a servant in his mother's family. The new Lord 
Stafford de jure, immediately claimed the title. Charles I., however, made 
a remarkable decision, that inasmuch as he had no estate, he should resign 
his claim to the barony, and this order was obeyed. On the 7th 
December, 1639, a formal grant and surrender of the barony was made to 
the king, who thereupon bestowed the title upon Sir William Howard, who 
had married a sister of the last lord. With the death of Roger, which took 



170 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



place in the following year, the male line of one of the most ancient and 
renowned families of England, representative of the great houses of Staf- 
ford, Gloucester, Hereford, and Buckingham, descended of the blood royal of 
England, came to an end, and the vicissitudes of the family was made 
complete by the fact that Jane Staflford, the only sister of Roger, had 
married a joiner, and that their son, the fourth in descent from Margaret 
Plantagenet, and eighteenth from the first Norman Stafford, was a cobbler 
of old shoes in the little town of Newport eleven miles from the castle 
of Stafford. 




7. Gale, 



IVolverha tup ton . 



STAFFORD CASTLE. 



^be CoUeoiate Cburcbee of Stafforbsbirc. 




ESIDES the great Cathedral of the Diocese and the several 
Abbeys and Priories, there were, before the dissolution of the 
religious houses, six churches in Staffordshire having each 
a body of canons and prebendaries, and other inferior 
members, with corporate privileges, known by the name of 
collegiate, namely those of Tamworth, Wolverhampton, 
Stafford, Tettenhall, Penkridge, and Gnosall. These were, in point of fact, 
secular communities bearing a close affinity to the monastic institutions in 
some respects, and the services and ritual in these churches was maintained 
after the same manner as those of the Cathedral Church. 

The collegiate foundation at Wolverhampton owes its existence to Wulfruna, 
the sister of Ethelred II., and widow of Duke Alfhelm, who in 996 endowed 
a monastery in connection with the Church of St. Peter already existing 
at Wolverhampton,* giving for that purpose land in Arley, Bilston, Willen- 
hall, Wednesfield, Walsall, and other places in the county. Whether this 
was actually from the first a secular community, as might be the case, 
even though it bore the monastic name, is not now perhaps ascertainable, 
but it is certain that at the Conquest such was the case, and that 
it consisted of a dean, and secular canons or prebendaries, and was granted 
by the Conqueror, with the lands which it had held since its foundation 



* Wolverhampton is generally supposed to take its name from Wulfruna, who founded and endowed the 
monastry here by three separate endowments, the first in the year 996 ; but a church existed here long before 
that date, for in the priviligium, granted by Archbishop Sigene for the erection, by Wulfruna, of a church in 
honour of the Blessed Virgin, there is a confirmation of the estates which the Church held in former times 
and moreover Wulfruna is called by Speed, " Inheritrix of the Towne Hampton." 



172 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



(and which had been confirmed to it by Edward the Confessor) to Sampson, 
his chaplain, and at the time of the Domesday survey the various properties 
belonging to the Collegiate Church are set down under his name, which 
also stands eighth in the schedule of landholders of the county as " Sanson, 

clericus." After Sampson be- 
came Bishop of Worcester, he 
gave the Church of Wolver- 
hampton, with its collegiate 
endowments, to " Thomas, 
the Prior, and his brethern, 
the monks of Worcester." 

The great privileges 
enjoyed by the prebendaries 
of this and other collegiate 
churches were, however, far 
from conducive to holy living, 
for as Plot quaintly tells us, 
"before it had stood near 
200 years, these Prebends 
grew so enormous in their 
lives, as Petriis Blesensis 
(who was their Dean) testifies, 
that their wickedness was 
made known by songs in 
the streets." The good 
Dean therefore complained 
to the King and the Archbishop, and, failing to effect a reformation, 
resigned his deanery to the King. The Archbishop thereupon endeavoured 
to establish the Cistercian monks in place of the colllege, and even obtained 
from King John * liberty to take timber from his forest and hayes, to build 
the proposed monastery, but died before he could accomplish his project ; 




y. Gale, Wolverhampton. 

ANCIENT SCULPTURED PILLAR IN THE CHURCHYARD 
OF ST. PETER'S, WOLVERHAMPTON. 



In King John's frequent visits to Staffordshire, Brewood was one of his resting places. 




J. Gale, 



Wolverhampton. 



STONE PULPIT, WOLVERHAMPTON CHURCH. 



174 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



and so the college continued to hold its possessions, and in the next mention 
of it we find Giles de Erdington as its dean (42 Henry III.), to whom 
that king granted a charter for a market upon Wednesday in every week, 
and an eight days' fair, commencing on the eve and day of the Apostles 
Peter and Paul. 

In the reign of Edward II., that monarch, taking great delight in his 
castle at Windsor, and being minded to advance the revenues belonging to 
St. George's Chapel, annexed the revenues of the college and free chapel 
of Wolverhampton to the Windsor Chapel, so that the Dean of the Chapel 
of St. George should hereafter be Dean of the Collegiate Church of Wolver- 
hampton. To this royal chapel the rich endowments given by Wulfruna 
to " Hamtone " have belonged ever since, save for a shoit interval, during 
which they were held by the powerful and unscrupulous John, Duke of 
Northumberland, but reverted, after his downfall, by grant of Queen Mary 
to the Dean and Chapter of Windsor. " In this condition," says Shaw, 
" it hath continued to the present day, subject to no earthly power but 
the King of England, and under it to the perpetual visitation of the 
Keeper of the Great Seal for ihe time being." 

The church itself is a noble monument of this ancient foundation. Built 
in the reign of Edward III., it is a spacious cruciform edifice in the early 
decorated style, with a square embattled tower rising from the centre, the 
upper part of which is a very fine specimen of later decorated work. One 
of the most interesting features of the interior is the .finely-carved stone 
pulpit, of the Perpendicular period, which is supported by a single shaft, 
and approached by a circular staircase, which winds round one of the nave 
piers. In the churchyard is a very curiously-carved pillar, with figures of 
strange beasts, flowers, and birds, which resembles somewhat a similar 
pillar at Leek. Both are, in all probability, fragments of old churchyard 
crosses. 

The founder of the collegiate church of Tamworth was King Edgar, 
who about the year 963 re-founded the church after the devastation 
of the town by Olaf and his Viking hosts, and gave it a college 
of canons, probably by way of raising a lasting monument to the 



THE COLLEGIATE CHURCHES. 



175 



pious Eadgyth or Editha, to whom the church was thereafter dedicated. 
This foundation was further enriched by Wulfric Spot, the founder of 
Burton Abbey, who, by his will, left an estate at Longden, in StaflFord- 
shire, to the Convent* at Tamworth and the monks of Burton, each to 
have an equal share of its products. 







OI.D VIEW OF TAMWORTH CHURCH (FfOin Sharu's Staffordshire). 
Shcncing the ruined snails of the old Deanery. 



The Dean and Chapter of Tamworth held many endowments, and among 
others the tolls of the three great fairs, while the bailiffs claimed those of 
the markets. They were also lords of the Manor of Middleton, Warwick- 
shire, and they purchased the advowson of the church of the same manor. 

* This word convent was as Palmer, the historian of Tamworth, points out, often used for any body of men, 
whether regular or secular ; but it may be that for a short period the occupants of the college were regular 
clergy, that is to say monks, as the Archbishop of that time gave most of the Church offices to the regular 
clergy. A short time after the Conquest, however, the dean and the canons of Tamworth were secular. 



176 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



The college consisted of six prebendaries with the dean, and their chief 
duty Avas to celebrate mass with all solemnities, and to say the Canonical 
Hours publicly every day. The deanery was situated eastward of the church- 
yard, and its walls were still standing when Shaw published his " History 
of Staffordshire." Some portions probably still stand, as they did, at any rate, 
within the memory of the present writer. A mansion house for the priests 
of the college stood in College Lane, on the site of the present National 
School, being given to the college by Henry Jekes, one of the High Bailiffs. 

Of the ancient church of St. Editha, thus founded as the seat of a secular 
college, little remains except the crypt and the two fine Norman transept- 
arches ; for on Trinity Monday, 1345, the church was destroyed by fire ; 
and with the ancient fabric passed away many interesting memorials of its 
ancient founders and benefactors. The work of re-building sorely taxed the 
resources of the Dean and Chapter, and the aid of the King (Henry VI.) 
was subsequently invoked to enable them to carry on the work of the 
church. In response, Henry established a perpetual chantry (1445-6) giving 
for its maintenance a fee-farm rent of 11 6s. a year, which had hitherto 
been yielded to the crown. He further granted to the Vicars Choral and 
Chaplains a tun of red wine every year out of the royal wines in the port 
of Bristol, " so that the people might oftener and more diligently draw nigh 
unto the venerable Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ." 

Many quaint customs and institutions were maintained under the regime 
of the College in Tamworth. We read of the public declaration of the 
Assize of Bread in the church on Relic Sunday, when the High Bailiffs 
and Serjeants at Mace attended in " great procession ; " also of mystery 
plays performed (probably in one of the chantry chapels) on Corpus Christi 
day ; * and it is not improbable (from certain indications in the construction 
of the battlements of the tower) that services similar to that which was 
performed on May Morning on Magdalen Tower, at Oxford, were occasionally 
performed on " the broad tower of Tamworth Church." 

* Palmer, in his History of Tamworth Church, gives extracts from the depositions in a charge against Sir 
Humfrey Ferrers for assaulting (by proxy) one of the performers in the Tamworth Mystery Play. It was urged 
in defence that the min, who personated the devil, and had great chains about him, had struck the knight 
with his chains as he went about in the throng. 



THE COLLEGIATE CHURCHES. 



177 



At the dissolution of the college, the commissioners reported fully on the 
value of the plate and possessions of the college. The Dean, Simon Symons, 

and the prebendaries land lay 
I vicars received pensions or 

compensations, and the endow- 
ments—or most of them — 
were seized by the crown. 
But many smaller endowments 
— for obits, lamps, lights, &c. 
— were withheld, and were not 
discovered and claimed by the 
crown until the reign of Eliza- 
beth. The church, as rebuilt 
after the fire in 1345, consisted 
of a nave and chancel, with 
nave aisles, and a chantry 
chapel on the north side of 
the chancel, which appertained 
to the Guild of St. George, 
and is now known as St. 
George's Chapel. The fine 
Norman arches of the transept 
are relics of the older church, 
and the broad, massive tower 
at the western end is famous 

M *u- „ * u u J J ■ .u- from its curious double stair- 

JNothmg seems to have been recorded respecting this 

interesting old ruin. From its name and situation case, whereby two persons 
outside the town, however, it is in all probability the . , 11.1 

SanaUrium which was built in 1345, during the great "^ig^t reach the battlements 

pestilence which carried off a third of the population, ^il the top, the one from the 
It may have continued to be used afterwards as a 



iir-ntfte^. iriiin .% 




^ 




h 


p^'. :.-. "^HKi^^ 


M^SjSr'^JL " -;^ . 


■^ M 




m 


^^K^^^^r i^ .^ 


^p^ 


'd 


^-^. " 


Is 


^^^H^K^Tri^^^^iH 








m 


' W^'"- ' 


Itl 








^K4'»H 


a'' 








SkI'^ ■ -"i . ' 


?> 




3 


i* w 


^^^^^■« . "T^^v^BH 








^^^^^^Krm ^^1^1 






i 


m' .- < 


w ~ 


^^^^al 


■i 


i 

1' 


m 


1 






1: 
\ 


K> 



U^. E. Weale, 



'THE SPITAL," TAMWORTH. 



hospital by the Guild of St. George or some other 



outside and the other from 



semi-religious brotherhood. within, without meeting or 

seeing each other till they reached the top. The marvel-loving Plot describes 
this as " the most unusual piece of stonc^work^ and the most extraordinary 



178 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



of any piece of ecclesiastical building that I have anywhere met with," and 
he conceives the purpose of its construction to have been " that the 
Deacons^ or Sacrists^ that made the responses^ and took care of the vest- 
ments and utensills of the church, might doe their duties apart, each 
having by this means the power of the steeple without troubhng the other. 
Or else that the clock-keeper might execute his office without troubling 
either of them.'' 

The Church of St. Mary at Stafford may probably be considered third in 
order of importance among Staffordshire Collegiate Churches. It was given 
by King Stephen to the Bishop and See of Lichfield some time previous 
to the year 1136 ; but at a later date the patronage reverted to the crown 
as a "royal free chapel" — a term often applied to collegiate churches 
generally — and, in 1445, it was granted by Henry VI. to Humphrey, Duke 
of Buckingham. The college consisted, according to Tanner's " Notitia," of a 
dean and thirteen prebendaries ; and at one time, we read, the " Dean of 
the King's Chapel of St. Mary at Stafford " exercised the right of presenta- 
tion to the Church of TixalL* 

An interestmg reference to a proposed visitation of this church occurs in 
the transcript of Bishop Norbury's Register (1322-1358), in the Salt Society's 
Collections. Under date 1322, the Bishop records the revocation of a 
visitation he had intended to make to the Dean of Stafford, which, he 
says, " must he put off on account of the muster to repel Scotch invasion, 
the people being drawn off to follow their feudal lords to war."t 

The church is an ancient fabric, in which are some fragments of the 
more ancient Saxon Church which preceded it. It consists of a nave, two 
side aisles, a transept, and a chancel of three aisles, the style of architecture 
being generally Early Pointed. The font in this church is worthy of 
special notice. It consists of three orders ; the lowest, a group of figures of 
apes, prone, supporting a tablet over which are four lions, who in turn support 
the font itself, which consists of four semi-globes, with various figures 
between each. The effect of the whole is grotesque and unecclesiastical. 

* Coram Rege Roll 31, H. iii. (Quoted in " Salt Society's Collections," vol. i.) 
t "Salt Society's Collection," i., 248. 



THE COLLEGIATE CHURCHES. 



179 



as 



There seems to have been a college at Tettenhall before the Conquest, 
in Domesday a portion of this parish is recorded, under the name of 




ANCIENT FONT IN ST. MARY'S, STAFFORD. 

Totenhale clericorum, among the lands belonging to the clergy of Wolver- 
hampton. There were four prebends, viz.— Tettenhall, Perton, Wrottesley, 



l8o HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



and Pendeford. There is very little to be learned respecting this collegiate 
institution, Shaw being apparently unable to record anything except the 
mention of its existence by Leland aud Speed, and the fact that some 
remains of the college formerly existed near the east end of the church. 
After the suppression of the college, the church lands became the property 
of the Wrottesley family. 

The collegiate church of Penkridge was founded by King John, the 
grant of the same to the See of Dublin bearing date 13th September, 
1206. The Archbishop of Dublin was its Dean, and the prebendaries 
were attached to Dunston, Coppenhall, Shareshill, and Stretton. According 
to Dugdale {Monashcon Angh'camim) " King Edward II., in the eleventh 
year of his reign, declared that the chapel at Pencriz and others 
were his free chapels,* and as such, exempt from all ordinary jurisdiction, 
impositions, exactions, and contributions, and accordingly ordained that none 
should presume to encroach upon their immunities." The church is princi- 
pally in the later English style, and has a fine tower, also a very fine 
east window, in the Decorated style. After the suppression of the college 
the advowson came into the hands of the Littleton family, of whom there 
are several interesting monuments in the church. 

The church of Gnosall was given by King Stephen to the See of Lich- 
field, but afterwards became a royal free chapel, or collegiate church, having 
an establishment of secular canons, of which, at the time of the dissolution, 
the bishop of Lichfield was titular dean, but with no profits attaching to 
the office. There were four prebendaries, namely — Chiltrenhall, Baverly- 
Hall, Mordhall, and Suckerhall. 

The church is large and interesting. It consists of a nave and chancel 
with two aisles to each, and transepts or cross-aisles — thus forming a cross, 
from the centre of which rises a tower, the lower part of which, according 
to Pitt, is Saxon. The church is early English, with decorated windows 
in the western end, and the western arch is decorated with flat receding 
chevron mouldings. 

* This appears to have been the case with all the chapels attached to Collegiate Churches. 



^be XeGen^ of lubcburcb. 




HERE are few wilder spots in England than the district 
surrounding Ludchurch. Within the space of a few miles 
are tremendous cliffs and huge rocks, rugged and terrific in 
aspect, sweeping tracts of moorland and peat, alternating 
with woodland and river. From mountain heights, 
giving views of boundless expanse, to the soft and 
varied charms of Dane-side or the Black brook is less than an hour's 
walk. Here, in the heart of England, not only is the red grouse abundant 
but nearly every English game bird is to be found ; here the speckled 
trout is found in as picturesque bits of river scenery as fisherman can 
desire. The trophies of the chase adorning the hall of Squire Brocklehurst, 
the lord of this district of English sport, attest that splendid specimens of 
the fallow deer yet roam at large upon the territory which forms a part of 
the once famous deer forest of Leek, whilst partridges, snipe, pewits, wood- 
cocks, and even curlews and plovers still frequent the hills and valleys of 
this favoured district. 

Although Ludchurch is visited from Buxton, Macclesfield, Leek, and 
Rudyard, it is best reached by pedestrians from Rushton Station, a mile from 
the north end of Rudyard Lake. 

From whatever point the remarkable chasm is approached, striking and 
unexpected scenes are passed, and the difficulty of reaching it unaided adds 
not a little to the enjoyment of the visit. By tortuous paths through the 
woods fringing the Dane banks from the west, the remarkable Hanging- 
Stone on the crest of a pine-covered hill is passed ; from the east the road 
through the back forest passes a castle-shaped cluster of rocks, called the 



[82 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE, 



Castle Cliffs. Either way footpaths somewhat difficult to find must be 
gained, and, when least expected, some tree-hidden miniature cliffs guide 
the visitor to the rocky, arch-like entrance to the temple of the moorlands. 
Here is a portal untouched by the restorer's hand. The work of the 
Great Architect has not been "improved" by rector, churchwarden or 
archaeologist, and debate as to its order, be it Saxon or Norman, British or 
Roman, has been avoided. Within, the walls rise in rugged grandeur in 
places to a height of seventy feet ; every chink and crevice and crack is 
beautified with the growth of tree or fern or tufted grass ; oak, ash, holly. 




ff. //. Home, 



Leek. 



RtlDYARD LAKE. 



and shrub contribute minute specimens for perpetual adornment, and their 
varied foliage adds to the shade and silent beauty of the scene. Steps of 
stone afford easy access to the varying levels of the flooring ; the tops 
of the almost perpendicular walls in places nearly touch each other, and 
the lighting is wholly from the sky. 



THE legp:nd of ludchurch. 



183 



There is a charm about Ludchurch which under any circumstaness would 
be irresistible, but with the memory of its surroundings, and its complete 
isolation from the busy world, with the mystery of its beginning and the 
uncertainty of its ending, with the knowledge ihat still lower in unfathomable 

depths its narrowing 
limits extend far 
away, no one knows 
\vhere,* one is im- 
pelled to a solemn 
feeling of admira- 
tion for this won- 
drous work of nature. 
That a country 
possessing all these 
char act eristics of 
w i 1 d n e s s , with a 
sparse population of 
impressionable and 
superstitious people, 
should have its 
remarkable traditions 
and romantic stories 
is to be expected; 
that Robin Hood 
found shelter and 
safety within its 
friendly walls will 
not be doubted. 
One of these long-surviving stories is, however, so romantic and charming 
in its detail as almost to atone for some want of authenticity in its origin. 
It is the story of a certain Knight, William de Lacy, a visitor in the 

* Adventuious explorers, among others one William Mills, with the aid of a ball of twine and a lantern have 
penetrated the cavern to a great distance, until they could hear the noise of flowing water, and concluded it 
extended beneath the Dane. 




LUDCHURCH. 



184 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



summer of 1546 to the mansion of his old friend Trafford, of Swythomlee. 
Sir William describes the scenic beauties of the landscape, the hills, forest, 
and rivers as he rides forth towards Buckstone.* On his way he witnesses 
a desperate combat between a powerful wolf and a goat, ending in the 
death of the wolf, within the walls of a gloomy, narrow glen. The damp 
walls of this glen are of considerable height, their tops being overgrown 
with trees, causing a deep gloom and extreme stillness, and impress him 
with solemn awe. Returning hence Sir William encounters an aged man 
reading his Bible whilst sealed beneath a lofty oak, and from him learns 
*' The Legend of Liidchurchy 

A small band of devoted followers of Wyckliffe preaching their doctrine 
in the district, selected the cavern-like ravine as a safe relreat, and here 
conducted their devotional services, of which singing was a prominent 
feature. The chief Lollard was an aged minister, one Walter de Lud-auk, 
and among his followers were his grand daughter Alice, a lovely and graceful 
girl of eighteen, endowed with a matchless voice, and Henrich Montair, the 
gigantic and handsome head forester of the district, who preserved and fed 
them in their concealment from the emissaries of the Church, who sought 
their capture. Upon the occasion of an impressive service, when the voice 
of the beautiful girl rang through the vaulted chamber, the tramp of 
soldiers and noise of arms was heard, and they were called upon to yield. 
The hardy forester defended the entrance to the passage, and called upon 
his comrades to escape. A bullet whistled past his ear, a loud shriek 
followed. Alice de Lud-auk, the lovely singer, had received the deadly 
bullet in her bosom, and lay in the arms of her grandsire. 

Lashed into a fury of wild desperation, the powerful forester dealt death 
blows at his adversaries, and the bereaved worshippers commenced a solemn 
dirge over the form of the lovely girl. Swelling in rich and mournful 
strains the death song as it rolled forth stilled the clash of arms ; the 
rough soldiers were touched, and grouped around in silence. A grave was 
dug without the walls of the temple beneath the shadow of the oak. 
With a short and fervid prayer the body was committed to the earth, and 

* Buxton— formerly Bawketsanes, probably from Badestanes— was called Buckstones in Dr. Jones's work of 1572. 



THE LEGEND OF LUDCHURCH. 



185 



the whole party submitted themselves prisoners. On their way to London, 
realising the danger incurred by his violence, Montair was induced to escape 
to France, whilst the rest underwent imprisonment. 

One portion of the romantic chasm has long borne the name of 
" TraflFord's Leap." A predecessor of the present lord, one of the Trafford 
family, known as the Old Squire, came suddenly whilst hunting upon the 
brink of the ravine. He urged his horse to attempt the frightful leap, 
which was successfully accomplished and his life saved, although several of 
his dogs were killed. 

The wonder-loving Dr. Plot relates a story in that remarkable work, "The 
Natural History of StaflFordshire " (1686) which must not be omitted: — "The 
stupendous cleft in the rock between Swythamley and Wharnford, commonly 
called Ludchurch, which I found by measure 208 yards long and at different 
places 30, 40, or 50 foot deep, the sides steeped, and so hanging over 
that it sometimes preserves snow all the summer, whereof they had signal 
proof at the town of Leek on the 17th of July, their Fair Day, at which 
time of year a Wharnford man brought a sack of snow thence and poured 
it down at the Mercat Cross, telling the people that if anybody wanted of 
that commodity he could quickly help them to a 100 load on't. " 



(^betW1?n^ an^ Stanlei?. 




HE succession of stately domains, Wolseley, Shugborough, 
Tixall, Ingestre, Chartley, and Sandon, comprised within 
eight or nine miles of the valley of the Trent, are such 
that few counties can rival. The natural scenery of this 
part of the river valley, with its beautiful woodland and 
sloping hills, survivals of the fringe of Cannock and Need- 
wood, where wild moorland and majestic trees intermingled, is enhanced by 
the picturesque parks and princely mansions of various great and historic 
families. 

Contiguous to these lordly demesne lands, when the Wars' of the Roses 
came to an end, were extensive heaths and commons stretching far towards 

the county town. Of these Hopton Heath, Salt 
Heath, and Tixall Heath were notoriously dangerous 
districts, and, in the year 1492, Tixall Heath was 
the scene of an assassination of a peculiarly brutal 
character. 

For more than two centuries the adjacent manor 
of Ingestre, or Gestreon, had been the seat of 
the Chetwynds, in succession to the very ancient 
family the Muttons, whose heiress Isabella had 
{temp. Edward I.) married Sir Philip Chetwynd, 
of Chetwynd, near the Staffordshire boundary 
of Salop. 




iliililBiIliiiiiiiiSiliiiiiiiiiiju^^ 
SHUGBOROUGH. 



CHETWYND AND STANLEY. 



187 



Various manors lying between Lichfield and the Trent, belonging to a 
branch of the Stanley family, were at that period held by Sir Humphrey 
Stanley, whose grandfather had acquired the estates, together with Elford and 
Haselour, by marriage with Maud Arderne, the heiress of Sir John Arderne, 
whose wife was the heiress of the Staffords of Pipe. These Stanleys were 
of the very ancient family originating at Stanley, near Leek. By the 
marriage of its chief representative. Lord Stanley, with the mother of 
Henry VIL, and by his active services on behalf of his Royal step-son — for 




TIXALL HALL, 1686. {From Plot's Staj^ordshire.) 



which he was created Earl of Derby — as well as by the participation of his 
relatives in the shower of honours and emoluments bestowed by Henry 
Kichmond after his accession to the throne, the Stanleys had risen to 
considerable power in the State. 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Between the Chetwynds of Ingestre and the Stanleys of Pipe, Elford, and 
Haselour a family feud of great bitterness is said to have existed. Both were 
of the Red Rose faction, and both were favoured and advanced at Court. 

Sir William Chetwynd succeeded to Ingestre when a child upon the death 
of his grandfather, Sir Philip Chetwynd, whose wife was Elena, widow of 
Edmund Lord Ferrers, of Chartley, and heiress of the Lords of Birmingham. 






■^ 



rr^ 




INGESTRE HALL. [^From Plot's Staffordshire.) 



Whilst Sir Humphrey Stanley was a soldier, and formed one of the King's 
body-guard, Chetwynd was appointed to the more peaceful office of Gentle- 
man Usher. The causes which operated to inflame the hatred of Stanley 
are not recorded ; the dastardly revenge he sought is stated to be the 
result of jealousy of his rival's advancement. The story, as related by 
Sir William Dugdale, and, with few variations, adopted by all other 



CHETWYND AND STANLEY. 1 89 



writers, tells how Sir Humphrey Stanley, envious of Chetwynd's modest 
advancement, caused a counterfeit letter bearing the name of Randolph 
Brereton to be sent to him on the Friday night before the feast of St. 
John the Baptist's nativity requesting Chetwynd to meet his assumed 
correspondent at Stafford at five o'clock the next morning. The unsus- 
pecting victim of Stanley's malice thereupon started on his journey 
attended only by his son and two. servants. As he crossed Tixall Heath 
he was waylaid by twenty armed men, " some with bows and others with 
spears, all armed Bregandines and coats of male," and seven of them 
belonging to Sir Humphrey's own family. These had hidden in a sheep- 
cote and a dry, deep pit, and as Chetwynd's little company approached, 
they issued from their hiding place and furiously attacked and killed him. 
In order to gratify his revenge and gloat upon the corpse of the man 
whom he had hated. Sir Humphrey contrived to pass that way with a 
company of attendants, on the pretence of hunting deer. 

The widow made great efforts to obtain redress, but does not appear to have 
been successful ; these hot-blooded encounters were too frequent at that period 
to excite serious attention. The heir of the Chetwynds continued at 
Ingestre, which became a seat of the Earls Talbot, who eventually succeeded 
to the Earldom of Shrewsbury. 

Of Sir Humphrey Stanley, Nightingale says : — * 

"In the wall of the south aisle of Lichfield Cathedral lies a mutilated statue of Captain 
Stanley, supported by a handsome Gothic altar tomb. The lower parts of the figure are 
entirely gone, and the little that remains can scarcely be distinguished. This person was 
probably Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe, who died in the reign of Henry the Seventh, and 
was excommunicated in consequence of a squabble he had with the Chapter about conveying 
the water through his lands to the Close, but, having shown signs of repentance before his 
death, was admitted to Christian burial upon condition that his monument should bear certain 
marks of disgrace. This is the same gentleman who procured the assassination of Sir William 
Chetwynd, one of the King's Gentleman Ushers during his passage over Tixall Heath." 



Nightingale'sI^County of Stafford, p, gop, 




VIEW FROM KINVER CHURCHYARD. 



(TarMnal ipole. 




HE County of Stafford counts among her illustrious sons 
the intrepid EngHshman, Reginald Pole, who neither 
flattered or feared burly King Hal, at a time when most 
of the prominent churchmen and statesmen servilely laid 
aside principle and manliness in order to gain the favour of 
the King. He was born in March, 1500, at Stourton 
Castle, on the right bank of the Stour. Running from Halesowen, the river 
has just joined the Smestall water from Trysull. Near the Castle walls the 
bridge Stouri pons or Stewponi crosses the river on the road to Bridgnorth, 
and is a prominent and picturesque feature to the rapidly increasing number 
of visitors to Kinver, which is about two miles distant. 

Whilst the wild features of this borderland of the forest in the early 
days of the Tudors may even yet be realized from various commanding 



CARDINAL POLE. 



191 



points in the vicinity of the Castle, the whole neighbourhood is rich in 
beauty and historical connection. Its surroundings are Prestwood, the chief 
seat of the Foleys ; Enville, the famed house of the Greys, Earls of 
Stamford, who were allied to the Queen of Edward IV. and to Lady Jane 
Grey ; Whittington, credited with the origin of the famous Lord Mayor of 
London ; Kinver, whose beauties, with its historic camp on the Edge, are 




A. Hartison Hill, 



STOURTON CASTLE. 



Wordsley. 



at length becoming appreciated ; Swinford Regis or Kingswinford, with its 
quaint old gabled " mansion house of tymber," and many other places of 
attraction. 

Henry VIII. and Reginald Pole were in the same degree descended from 
the old line of English Kings. With the early deaths of Edward IV,, 



192 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



George, Duke of Clarence, and Richard III., the three sons of the 
Yorkist Duke of the White Rose, the lengthened rule of the Plantagenets 
came to a close. Edward's two sons were murdered by their uncle, and 
their sister married the victorious Richmond, by whom the brave but cruel 
Richard was overthrown. 

Richard died wifeless and childless, and the only son of Clarence was put 
to death by Richmond, thus Edward's daughter, Elizabeth (Richmond's wife) 
and her cousin Margaret, the daughter of Clarence, were the sole survivors 
of the ancient and royal race. 

Margaret Plantagenet, born 14th August, 1473, married Sir Richard Pole 
or Poole, KG., attached to the court of Prince Arthur. She was the 
mother of four sons, Henry, Geoffrey, Arthur and Reginald, and one 
daughter, Ursula, who married Lord Stafford. 

The ancient family of Hampton had been lords and owners of Stourton 
Castle until the reign of Henry VI., it then passed to the Whorwoods, and 
in the year 1500 was evidently in the occupation of the Poles, for in 
March of that year their fourth son Reginald, the great Cardinal, was born 
here. 

A few years later the Poles were living at Richmond. At that period 
schools were maintained at most of the religious houses, Reginald was first 
sent to the school of the Carthusian Monastery of Sheen, and in 1512 to 
the Whitefriars School at Oxford ; transferred to Magdalen College, he, at 
the age of 14, became a Bachelor of Arts. His father was now dead, and 
his mother, on her own application, had been created Countess of Salisbury. 
Subsequently Pole was Dean of Wimbourne Minster and Prebendary at 
Sarum, and in 1523 made Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He 
now went to Padua, but returning to England he soon found himself in 
opposition to the King, and realized that sacrifice of honour was the only 
mode of advancement. In 1530 he had retired to Paris, and was acknow- 
ledged one of the most learned men of the age. There is no doubt Henry 
tried to entice him home with the offer of the vacant Primacy of York, 
but he removed to Italy, and speedily, without ambiguity or fear, enlightened 
Henry as to his views regarding the marriage with Anne Boleyn. In vain 



CARDINAL POLE. 



193 



the King endeavoured to lure him back to England, but Pole was too 
wary, and in revenge Henry was mean enough to sacrifice his mother's 
life, thus at the age of 68 Margaret Plantagenet, the last of her line, was 
butchered on Tower Hill. 

The Countess' condemnation in 1539, without the sanction of Parliament, 
was the device of Lord Thomas Cromwell, but ere she was executed the 
precedent he had created was applied to himself. 

Upon the accession of Queen Mary, Cardinal Pole returned to England 
and succeeded Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury, and it is a most 
remarkable tribute to the man that with the cruel acts which disgraced 
Mary's reign, his name is never connected, although it is perhaps impossible 
to free him from all responsibility. 

Queen Mary and her great Minister both died the same day, the 17th 
November, 1558. 





ZTbe Scotti0b (Slueen at tTutburi?. 

UTBURY, the burh of Saxon rulers and stronghold of 
Norman barons, the palace of John of Gaunt and his 
Castilian consort, the stately castle of the House of Lancaster, 
and the sometime home of Kings, has through centuries 
participated in all the great events of English history — but 
no story of the past, no incident in its long existence, 
retains an interest to equal that of its association with Mary of Scotland 
during her long imprisonment. There is a sad romance about the young 
and beautiful queen, interwoven with the walls of Wingfield, Sheffield and 
Chartley, of Tutbury and Fotheringay, which will never die. The interest 
of the story yet grows with years, and will linger when tirrie has destroyed 
her prison walls. 

Born in 1542, a week before the death of her father, with whom 
Henry VIII. was then at war, the child Queen was early contracted with 
Francis, the Dauphin of France. Her chequered life began with their 
marriage in 1558. Her husband ascending the French throne, died within 
two years, and Mary in August, 1561, returned to Scotland. Her subsequent 
marriage with Darnley, the murder of Rizzio, the birth of her son, 
James I, the destruction of her husband by Bothwell, whom she immediately 
married, her deposition and imprisonment at Lochleven, were the events of 
a few years. Escaping from Lochleven, she raised an army, but was defeated, 
and i6th May, 1568, crossed the English border, and delivered herself into 
the power of her Queen cousin, her " good sister," Elizabeth, Her age was 



THE SCOTTISH QUEEN AT TUTBURY. I95 

now 26, that of Elizabeth 35. After a brief detention at Carlisle and 
Bolton Castle, a Court of Enquiry was instituted at York. The Chief Com- 
missioner, the Duke of Norfolk, sought to become the fourth husband of 
the young and attractive prisoner. His plot was revealed to Elizabeth, and 
he was sent to the Tower, and eventually executed. Mary was, in January, 
1569, removed for safety to Tutbury Castle, under the care of the Earl of 
Shrewsbury.* 

A quantity of household stuff, chairs, cushions, carpets, and tapestry, had 
been sent from the Tower of London for her use. In April, however, she 
was removed to the Earl's house at Wingfield, where the Earl was taken 
ill, through the intemperate conduct of his Countess, to whom he had but 
recently become fourth husband. This woman was the celebrated Bess 
Hardwick, the widow of Sir William Cavendish ; she had an iron will and a 
relentless heart. It was Mary's great misfortune to be placed under her power, 
and greater, that her dislike of Mary accorded with Elizabeth's fancy. 

Owing to a conspiracy among the Catholic noblemen in the north, Mary 
was hurried back to Tutbury. A march to that place to liberate her was 
threatened, and Elizabeth sent an imperative order " from our Castle at 
Windsor," 22nd November, 1569, "to convey the Scottische Queene from 
Tutbury, where she now remaineth, unto our Town of Coventry." 

During Mary's long imprisonment, one of her chief troubles was the 
sudden and frequent changes in the places of detention, changes deemed 
necessary from rumours of conspiracies ; thus she was hurried to Coventry, 
thence to Ashby Castle, and back, before Christmas, to Tutbury. Here 
she remained until September, 1570, t and taken thence to Chatsworth, and 
removed, before Christmas, to Sheffield Castle. 

* Whilst Mary was at Carlisle 19th June, 1568, the French Ambassador wrote from London :— " They were 
preparing her quarters at a Castle named Tutbury, a very beautiful place, as they say, especially for hunting." 

The Earl of Shrewsbury was appointed her guard, 15th December. The journey to Tutbury occupied i.ine 
days, in the depth of winter, and the Queen was taken ill on the way. On the 15th December, the Earl 
wrote— "Now it is sarten that the Scotes Queen comes to Tutbury to my charge." On the 12th January, 
1569, a servant of the Earl wrote to the Countess — "The Scottische Quene is on her journey to Tutbury, 
something against her will, and shall be under my Lord's custody there." 

t A letter of Earl Shrewsbury's, when the Queen was at Tutbury, says — "The charges daily that I do nowe 
susteyn, and have done all the year past, well knowen by reason of the Quene of Scots, are so great, etc. 
Truly two tonnes (of wine) in a monthe have not hitherunto sufficed ordinarily, besides that 
is occupied at times for her bathings and such like uses." 



196 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



In the autumn of 1572 Mary was taken to Chatsworth, and was also, it 
is said, again at Coventry at the Bull Inn. For some years a visit to 
Chatsworth alone relieved the monotony of her life, but in 1576, she was 
indulged with a:n agreeable change to the " Bathes of Buckstones." A 
severe sufferer from rheumatism, at Buxton she found relief, and has left 
appreciative records of this and several subsequent visits. In 1580 and 1581 
she was again at Chatsworth, and although but 38 her hair had become 
quite grey. In 1584, September, she quitted Sheffield Castle for Wingfield. 

Sir Ralph Sadler had succeeded the Earl as keeper to the royal captive ; 
but he was heartily sick of the task, and perpetually pleading to be relieved of 
his trust. Another change of place of detention was decided upon, either to 
Tutbury or Nottingham, but Tutbury could be most cheaply furnished by 
removing the effects of Lord Paget, of Beaudesert, then subject to a 
forfeiture for treason, accordingly the household effects — hangyngs, beddyn, 
lynenes, playt, brasse, pewther, and other furniture — were removed to the 
Castle. On Wednesday, the 13th January, 1585, Sir Ralph set out with 
his charge by way of Derby, where they stayed the night, order having 
been first sent to the Bailiff of the town to provide '* that there be none 
assemble of gasing people in the streets," and on the following day, 
accompanied by Sir John Zouche, Sir John Byrm, Sir Thomas Cockain, 
Mr. Manners, and Mr. Curzon, they reached Tutbury. * 

Constant care was taken to guard against surprise or treachery at 
Tutbury. Amongst other precautions, " thirty handsum lusty men were 
retained, having good friends in this part of Staffordshire, being most of 
them Her Majesty's furmoeurs or furmoeurs sons depending upon this 



* The stoppage at Derby gave great offence to Elizabeth, and Sir Ralph Sadler explained that no nearer 
road was passable, though he had sent a rider forward to see if any way passable for coach, by reason of hills, 
rocks, and woods. Some busybody at Court, called " a great personage," had reported that the Queen was 
offered to salute and to kysse a multitude of the townes weomen. Sir Ralph's refutation, alike creditable to him 
and to his royal charge, was— " That her enterteynment to those women was this. In the little hall was the 
good wife, being an ancient wydow named Mres Beaumont with iiii other women her neighbours, so sone as 
she knew who was her hostesse, after she had made a beck (a nod) to the rest of the women standing next to 
the doore, she went to her and kissed her and none other, saying that she was come thither to trouble her, 
and that .she was also a wydow, and therefore trusted that they shoulde agree well enough together, having 
no husbands to trouble them." Further, Sir Ralph stated that "by his appointment the Bailiffs caused a good 
watch of honest householders to be around at all the corners of the towne and in the market place, and viii 
to walk all night yn that streete where sh? lodged, as myself lying over against that lodging can well testify 
by the noise they made all night.'' 



THE SCOTTISH QUEEN AT TUTBURY. 1 97 

honour or duchy." Thus great hardship was suffered by the inhabitants of 
villages around Tutbury in guarding and provisioning the Castle, and earnest 
appeals for relief were made. The Queen's guard at some periods amounted 
to 200 officers and men, and her personal retainers and attendants to 42 
persons.* 

Sir Ralph Sadler's task was extremely distasteful to him, on the 22nd 
March, 1585, he defended himself against a complaint that he had given 
the Queen " liberty to go abrode a hauking vi. or vii. myles from the 
Castle." In reply, he stated " the trewth in dede is that when I came 
hither fynding the country comodious and mete for the sporte which I have 
alwayes delighted in, I sent home for my hauks and falconers wherewith to 
pass this miserable lyf which I lead here, and when they cam I take the 
comodity of them somtymes here abrode not farre from this Castel." He 
further acknowledged that at the Queen's earnest entreaty he assented to 
her desire to see his hawks fly, " a pastime indeed she takes singular 
delight in," and that she had " been with him upon the ryvers here 3 or 
4 times, somtymes i myle, somtimes 2 myles, but not more than 3 myles 
from the Castel." 

Within a month Sir Ralph was superseded in the trust by Sir Amyas 
Foulet, and Mary's illness increased to an alarming extent. She has left 
a dismal account of her misery at Tutbury. " I am," she says, " in a 
walled enclosure on the top of a hill, exposed to all the winds and 
inclemencies of heaven," and describes her miserable accommodation ; a 
patch, called a garden, she describes as only fit for pigs. Sir Amyas, more 
over, removed the cloths of state from her great chamber, and eventually, 
January, 1586, conveyed her to Chartley.t 

In November, previously, Poulet was at Chartley preparing for Queen 
Mary's removal there, but on the 6th of that month, in consequence of 
the sturdy resistance of the young Earl of Essex to his house being so 

* In the correspondence of Sir Ralph Sadler, he speaks of " Burton, three myles off," as the place for supply- 
ing beer, and it is said that during the Babington Conspiracy, a Burton brewer, who supplied the Castle wiih 
beer, became the medium of communication with Queen Mary. 

t Some years later ber son, James I., visited his mother's prison of Tutbury, not from sorrow and synipalhy, 
but to hold revel and feasting therein. 



198 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



used, he received instructions to inspect Dudley Castle as to its fitness to 
receive the royal prisoner, instead of Chartley. The report of Sir Amyas 
to Walsingham, as given by Twamley from the State Papers,* has a special 
interest : — 

" Sir, — I would not faile, according to your former directions, to use all diligence for the 
removing of this Q. to Chartley, and to that purpose have caused greate store of woodd to 
be felled, sea coale and charke coale to be burned, tymber to be sawed, bere to be brewed, 
brick to be carried, and manie other like necessaries to be provided ; but your letters of the 
iiiith of this present coming to my hands the vi'h of the same at ten of the clock at night, I 
retired my servants from Chartley, I discharged my carpenters and masons for one week, I 
disa pointed as manie carriages as I could upon so short warninge, and stayed all my other 
proceedings there untill my returne from Dudley castle, where finding my L. Dudley absent I 
was forced to take my lodging in one of the poorest townes that I have sene in my life ; 
and the next day tooke a full view of the castle, with the assent of sayde L. who being 
then at Warwick, sent the keys with all expedition. The lodgings of this castle are not so 
manye in number as I would wishe, and are also verie little and straight, saving the lodgings 
which must serve for this Q. wch are so faire and commodious as she cannot desire to haue 
them amended. Touchinge the rest of the howse, these defects and inconveniences following 
cannot be denied : There is great plenty of sea-coale, charke-coale, and fire woodd at hand, 
which cannot be had but for readie money, and therefore will prove chargeable when it shall 
be compared with the charge in other place, where fire woodd and coale came owt of 
the Queenes owue woodd, and cost nothing but the makinge. The brewing vessels are 
somewhat decayed ; and some are wanting, which may be supplied from Burton. The water 
for the kitchens and household must be fett out of the dikes without the gate, and yet 
some will say that the pump wch standith in the myddest of the court yf yt were clensed 
would furnishe sufficient and good water, but I find others that doubt thereof. The chamber 
windowes of this Q. lodgings are open upon the park, as likewise the windowes of her kitchen, 
which I trust may be supplied by a good watch and a deep ditche, but specialie by this Q. 
infirmitie which will not permit her to run away on her feet. These defects are recompensed 
yn parte with the strength of the howse in other respects, and with manie other good 
commodities. The counties of Worcester and Warwick adjoining yelding good plentie of all 
kinds of victuals, and at reasonable prices, saving that corne groweth to be deere in all these 
parts. Thus, I have delivered unto you my simple opinion herein without partiality, referring 
the same to your better consideration, and so do forbeare to trouble you with an.ything ells 
until I shall hear from you what shall be resolved herein. The provisions made at Chartley, 
of woodd, coals, bere, &c., will be put away with help of Mr. Bagott with no great losse. I 



* Twamley's Hist. Dudley Castle, p. 



THE SCOTTISH QUEEN AT TUTBURY. 199 



am now glad that I stayed my proceedings at Chartley, wherein I thought good to make 
choyse of the lesse damage, because if I proceeded in my work and carriage, and that the 
remove had bene disapointed, I had increased her majestyes charge greatele, and altered my L. 
of Essex howse, Chartley, in something which perchance would not have been pleasing to his 
L. These are the fruites of irresolution, charge to her majestic, trouble to the countrie ine 
carriage, and the losse of my labour in vague journeys. 

I have according to your directions carried this journey, and the. dependence thereof 
in such sort, as neither my household at Tutbury dothe know where I am, nor my L. 
of Essex servants at Chartley do think that any thing ys lesse intended than the disapoynting 

of the Scottish Queues removal thither And although the remove to 

Dudley castle shall be resolved, yet I would be gladd to receave this letter for Mr. 
Bagot to serve my turne in case of necessitie during my abode at Tutburie, because I 
look every day for harme. I think myself assured by the sight of a memoriall sent this last 
weeke from C. Serelles to Han, that the Scottishe gentlewoman came with the carrier to 
Tutburie the ix. of this present. And whereas I wrote unto you that I would bestowe her 
with Mr. Baggot or Mr. Greysley untill I knew your pleasure, I have confidence that they 
would think themselves yll handled to be troubled with any belonging to this Q, and there- 
fore have taken order with my wife to bestow her with an honest merchant of Burton. Being 
sorie that I have not heard from you herein by your last letters, but it may not seem' strange 
that you forgot these like trifles, in this busie and troublesome tyme. Yt maye please you to 
give me leave to say unto you once againe that in respect of the long cariage, and greate 
charge wch will ensue of this remove to Dudley castle, I will not advise the same yf yt be 
not intended that wee shall remayne there some long tyme, and then some greater charge 
than those before remembered will not be yll bestowed. Yt seemeth that your doubt of the 
neighboures of Chartley wch will hardly be matched at Dudley castle, or ellswhere in these 
parts ; Sir Walter Aston dwelling within thre miles ( Tixall), Mr. Bagot as neare {^Bagct Park) 
Mr. Trentam within six miles (Roces(e>), all three lietenants of the sherr, Mr. Griesley within 
four miles (Co/ton), by the late death of his mother, besides some others, well effected gentle- 
men of good calling, and among the rest of the good neighbours, my L. of Essex tenants, 
may not be forgotten. And thus not having wherewith ells to trouble you at this tyme, I 
commit you to the mercy and favour of the highest. From Rushall, the il November, 1585. 

Your most assured poor friend, 

A. POULET. 

During the stay at Chartley, the Queen was hurried from one gentleman's 
house to another, that her cabinets might be rifled during her absence ; 
even her money was taken from her, that she might not bribe anyone. 
When she came first to Tutbury, she was described as " a goodly personage ; 



20O 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



hath an alluring grace, a pretty Scottish speech, a searching wit, with great 
mildness, and her hair black," now, after 15 years of cruelty and indignity, 
she was completely broken down. On leaving the stately gatehouse of 
Tixall, then newly erected, on the 30th August, she is supplicated by poor 
people around her—" Alas " ! says the poor grey-haired Queen of 43, " I 
have nothing for you, I am a beggar as well, all is taken from me." She 
rejoined her bodyguard in tears. 

The next month. Sir Amyas Poulet, accompanied by Sir Thomas Aston, 
Sir Thomas Trentham, Sir Thomas Gresley, Sir Edward Aston, Sir Edward 
Littleton, Sir Walter Leveson, Sir John Bowes, and Sir Richard Bagot, 
started from Chartley with the hapless prisoner for Fotheringay. They 
rested at Abbots Bromley Manor House, where an inscription on the 
window records " Maria Rcgina Scotice^ quondam transibiit istam vtllam 21, 
Sett. 1586, usque Burton. At Burton she bade farewell to the County 
in which she had suffered so much, and on the 8th of February following 
was put to death at Fotheringay. 



S'/./L^'/A^ lilt 

SS^'f'JSJil:::!!!! 

W fflKtl liii 



ABtOTS BROMLEY. 




OKEOVER. 




wo years after Mary Stuart was put to death at Fotheringay, 
one of her enemies, Robert, Earl of Leicester, died on his 
way to Warwickshire. He was the last of the three 
Dudleys, by whom EngHsh statecraft was, during nearly the 
whole of the Tudor rule, almost continuously influenced. 
Each of these men had a connection with our County. 
Edmund, the lawyer ; John, best known as the ambitious Duke of 
Northumberland ; and Robert, generally designated the infamous Earl of 
Leicester. Their remarkable, and in some respects brilliant, careers— a 
mingling of romance with subtilty, valour with crime, and ambition with 
failure — are not undeserving a brief notice. 

A long accredited story, first given by Erdeswick, tells us that the father 
of Edmund was a carpenter born in the town of Dudley, who travelling 
for a living, happened to be entertained at the Abbey of Lewes, in Sussex, 
and was called by the Monks, John of Dudley. The story tells further 



202 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



how that growing in favour of the Abbot he married, and continued as the 
carpenter of the house, and had a son Edmund, who, for his great aptitude 
in learning, was noticed by the Abbot and sent to the University, and 
thence— in order that he might become a lawyer and manage the lawsuits 
of the Monks — to the Inns of Court. 

This story of the carpenter, however, like many of the time-honoured 
tales of our chroniclers, has eventually been disproved. Investigation has 
shown that Edmund Dudley was, as he claimed to be, a descendant of a 
younger branch of the Sutton Dudleys, of Dudley Castle. 

It may be doubted if this claim was worth making. The Sutton Dudleys 
were a long-continued line without a distinguished name — perhaps the greatest 
of the family was Edmund's grandfather John (born 1401, died 1487), who 
at the age of five succeeded his father, and in due time was made a baron. 
He adhered to the house of Lancaster as long as it suited him, was- much 
disliked by the Yorkists, was wounded at Blore Heath, and receiv.ed very 
liberal rewards. His principles were pliant, and in the first year of Edward 
IV. he received rewards for services to the other side. Although honoured 
by the ill-fated young king Edward V. he transferred his faithful services 
to Richard III., in the first year of whose reign he was again rewarded.* 

John, the father of Edmund, was the second son, and his appearance at 
Lewes was probably about the time of the Blore fight. It is noteworthy 
that the priory of Dudley, adjoining the Castle, was one of the very few 
of the Cluniac order in England, and that the priory (not abbey) of Lewes 
was the chief Cluniac priory in the kingdom About 146 1 this alleged 
carpenter married Elizabeth, daughter of John Bramshot, Esq., Lord of 
Bramshot, Hampshire, and of several other manors. Edmund, their son, 
born in Staffordshire, 1462, was the first of his family to make a lasting 
name in history. 

When Henry VII. entered London after his triumph over Richard III.j 
Edmund, after a successful career at Oxford and Gray's Inn, was living and 
practising as a lawyer in St. Swithin's Lane. Although then but 23 years 

* The two Lord Dudleys next in succession, Edward and John, were but a mixture of weakness and wicked- 
ness. The last-named, known as the " Lord Quondum," lost the Castle, and lived on charity. 



THE THREE DUDLEYS. 203 



old, the new king, who was six years his senior, appointed him one of his 
Privy Council. By an early marriage with Anne, sister of Andrews, Lord 
Windsor, he had an only daughter, and became a widower in 1494. About 
this time he obtained the wardship and disposal in marriage of Elizabeth, 
daughter of Edward Grey, Baron de Lisle. Descended from the renowned 
John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, his ward was a most desirable alliance, 
he, therefore, when verging on 40, married her himself. 

During the last few years of his life he, in conjunction with Richard 
Empson, another lawyer (said to be the son of a Towcester sieve maker), 
entered upon that series of exactions and forfeitures which became notorious 
in history. By their oppressions vast sums were extorted to fill the coffers 
of their avaricious master, but an indignant clamour was excited, during 
which the King died. 

His successor, who never regarded loyal services to his father, rapidly 
squandered the hoarded wealth in pleasure, and, without a particle of legal 
right, on the i8th of August, 15 10, executed both the hoarders upon 
Tower Hill. 

John Dudley, the eldest son of Edmund and Elizabeth, is said to have 
been born in the vicinity of Okeover, near Dovedale, in the year 1502. 
Scarcely eight at his father's death, his wardship was given to Edward 
Guildford, an Esquire of the King, to whose daughter Jane, he was 
subsequently married. 

With great personal advantages, a courtly bearing, great courage and 
address, he combined considerable ability and keenness, he early obtained a 
knighthood on the field, judiciously served Wolsey until he fell, and then 
attached himself to Cromwell. In 1536, the year in which Thomas Cromwell 
was made a Baron, Dudley was made Sheriff of Staffordshire, what was his 
qualification is not apparent, but it is possible he had already acquired the 
Castle of Dudley. With Cromwell's fall, four years later, Dudley's advance- 
ment commenced. A Knighthood of the Garter, a Peerage as Viscount 
L'Isle, and the office of Lord High Admiral followed in rapid succession. 
All things, it is recorded, he achieved with honour, and as he advanced in 
the King's favour so also did he in authority with the nobility. 



204 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Whilst he served with valour and ability under the Earl of Hertford 
(Duke of Somerset) in the wars with France and Scotland, he, notwith- 
standing the ever-changing policy of the King, retained the royal favour, 
and when the imperious tyrant died, he was virtually the ruler of the little 
band of courtiers who reigned in the name of the youthful Edward. 

In a few years he became possessor of the Castle, and the title of Earl 
of Warwick, was made Earl Marshal, and finally Duke of Northumberland. 




DUDLEY, FROM THE CASTLE HILL. 



At what time and by what means he obtained Dudley Castle is not clear, 
it was before 1538, for about that time he says in a letter "after my coming 
home to Dudley." In 1545 he obtained a grant of the Lordship of 
Birmingham, whilst his acquisition of wealth, mainly the estates of the 
plundered Religious Houses and the Gilds was enormous. Successively Lord 



THE THREE DUDLEYS. 205 



Thomas Somerset and his brother the Protector, uncles of the King, fell the 
victims of his intrigue ; but his crowning ambition, the capture of the crown 
itself, * was a dismal failure, and his ruin was startling in its rapidity. His 
ability and shrewdness, his consummate skill forsook him in adversity, he 
vainly begged for life. Brought to Tower Hill, 22nd August, 1553, he 
blamed others for his own acts, avowed himself a Catholic, and " The 
sayings of John, Duke of Northumberland, uppon the scaffolde," was printed 
and sold for the delectation of his enemies. 

Thus after 30 years' incessant scheming and intrigue, whereby he had 
ultimately raised himself to the highest position in the land, and accumulated 
vast wealth, John Dudley, the most powerful of his race, lost all by one 
gross blunder. 

Robert Dudley, the fifth son of the Duke, born 24th June, 1533, was 
only connected with Staffordshire during the last ten years of his life. 

According to his biographer, Hayward, — " He was the true heir both of 
his father's hate against persons of nobility, and cunning to dissemble the 
same, and afterwards for lust and cruelty a monster of the Court." 

When brought to the Court of Edward VI., he was but a stripling of 
16, the King's age being 12 only; here he became acquainted with the 
princess Elizabeth, who was his own age. He was a handsome young 
fellow, and like the rest of the Dudleys, well educated ; he had consider- 
able daring and ability, wanting rather in courage than wit, and Elizabeth 
was attracted by his very goodly person. 

On the 4th June, 1550, he was married at Sheen to the beautiful Amy 
Robsart, in the presence of the King, to whom he was shortly afterwards 
made Gentleman in Ordinary. Hayward pointedly remarks — " After this 
appointment the King enjoyed his health not long." 

On Mary's accession, 1553, Robert, with the rest of the Dudleys, was 
incarcerated in the Tower, and there he was visited by his wife. After 
being pardoned he served as a soldier, subsequently he obtained the 

* The marriage of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey with Guildford Dudley, is said by a Venetian visitor to 
London, to have been forced upon her in spite of her vehement resistance, that she was compelled to live with 
the Dudleys whom she viewed with deep detestation, and that when compelled to accept the Crown her 
husband claimed the title of King, but this she declined to admit. 



206 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



confidence of Mary, or at least of her Spanish husband, but he did not 
overlook the probability of Elizabeth coming to the throne, and when in 
1558 this happened, he was at once promoted, made Master of the Horse 
and K.G., admitted to close intimacy with Elizabeth, and acquired a remark- 
able power at Court. 

In 1560, his wife who had been moving about from place to place, was 
confined under trusty keepers at Cumnor, where, in September, she was 
murdered, or met with a most remarkable fatal accident. Dudley did not 
attend her funeral, he remained at Kew in a house given him by Elizabeth, 
his relations with the Queen became closer, and for a few years they 
were supposed to have been secretly married, but his insolence and pre- 
sumption led to bitter quarrels. The accident to Amy made Elizabeth 
cautious, she even proposed he should marry the Scottish Queen, she gave 
him Kenilworth Castle, created him Baron Denbigh and Earl of Leicester, 
she loaded him with wealth and for a long time enabled him to boast of 
his unrivalled power at Court, yet she hesitated at becoming his second 
wife. 

Among his baser acts, during this period, was his intrigue with the Duke 
of Norfolk and the Catholic party of the Scottish Queen, whereby Norfolk 
was lured to his downfall. 

In 1573 he secretly married the lady Douglas, widow of Lord Sheffield ; 
by her he had a son Robert, and also, it is said, a daughter born at 
Dudley Castle. * 

Having lavishly restored Kenilworth Castle, he entertained Elizabeth there 
in 1575 in a princely manner ; and having fallen in love with lady Lettice, 
the wife of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, of Chartley, he was anxious 
for the Earl's departure for Ireland. It was never proved that Leicester 
caused the death of Essex, but he died at Dublin on the 22nd September, 

1576. 

Attempts to bribe his wife to repudiate their marriage and to destroy 

* Mary, the sister of Leicester's wife, married Edward, Lord Dudley. In 1575, the Queen, after leaving 
Kenilworth, paid a visit to Dudley Castle, and was also entertained at Chartley by Lady Essex, who had been 
at the Kenilworth revels. 



THE THREE DUDLEYS. 



207 



her by poison having failed, he married the widow of Essex secretly, 
and for more than a year kept Elizabeth in ignorance. At length she 
was enlightened by the French Ambassador whilst negotiating a marriage 




OLD TOWN HALL, DUDLEY. 



with Alen9on. The Queen was overwhelmed, accepted Alen9on, and ordered 
Leicester into confinement, but rapidly recovered and brought him back to 
Court. She, however, loathed his wife, and in 1583 denounced her with 
terrible vehemence, nor did she ever forgive her. 

In the year of his third marriage, he acquired the ancient Staffordshire 
seat of the Bassets at Drayton — much in the same manner as his father 
obtained Dudley Castle. Here he occasionally visited his wife ; it was a safe 



2o8 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



distance from Court and conveniently near Chartley, now belonging to her 
son Robert, the second Earl Essex. Leicester introduced this stepson to 
Court about 15S5, to counteract the influence of Raleigh who was rapidly 
supplanting him in the Queen's favour. 

His subsequent failure in the Lowlands, both as a soldier and adminis- 
trator, is well known. Upon his recall, he was in May and June, 1588, 
associated with Elizabeth at Tilbury in the defence against the Spanish 
invasion. He was afterwards taken ill and began his journey homewards, 
but died on his way at Cornbury on the 4th September, 1588. 

By his last wife he had one son, the " noble Imp," who lies in the 
Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick. The son Robert, by Lady Sheffield, was ruined 
by his efforts to prove his legitimacy, his father, who left him the estates, 
having described him as " his base-born son ; " he inherited many of his 
father's bad qualities. 

Leicester left Drayton Basset to his widow, who married Sir Christopher 
Blunt. Tradition says she and Blunt were attached whilst Leicester was 
alive, and that she was aware of her husband's intention to kill him, and, 
therefore, accelerated Leicester's death by poison. She survived at Drayton 
until 1634, living to see her grand children's grand-children. 



Zbc Zbvcc Devereuye. 




HILST distinction is accorded to the three Dudleys for their 
evil lives, a remarkable and pleasing contrast is afforded 
in the honourable character and distinguished career of the 
Devereuxs of Chartley. 

From the succession of Sir Walter Devereux to the 
ancient barony of Ferrers of Chartley, in 1460, to the 
abeyance of the title in 1646, there is a general absence in the family of that 
intrigue and strategy for self-advancement, the unworthy scheming and plotting 
for wealth and titles, too commonly associated with the nobility of the Tudor 
period. 

In 1550, Walter Devereux, a man of proved valour, grandson of Sir 
Walter before named, was created Viscount Hereford, a title still held by 
his descendants through the Devereuxs of Chartley, of Castle Bromwich and 
of Sheldon, near Birmingham. Dying a few weeks only before Elizabeth 
ascended the throne, he was followed by his grandson Walter Devereux, 
who in his brief but honourable and unsullied life, made his name famous 
in history. 

Born in 1539, and created Earl of Essex in 1572, Devereux was one of 
the few Peers who, throughout the conspiracies of the Scottish Queen's 
party and the intrigues of the Court, remained true to Elizabeth, brave 
and enthusiastic, he has been called the reviver of Mediaeval chivalry, and 
from his high repute, " the good Earl of Essex." 

Great were the difficulties of the Earl's position. From Elizabeth, who with 
few exceptions reserved her favours for the least worthy of her courtiers, 



210 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



he received no support, and his scheme for the recovery of Ireland was in 
consequence of her parsimony, only to be effected at his own charges and from 
moneys raised on his Estates, whilst in the prosecution of his mission, he was 
hampered by the vacillation of the Queen and the reproaches of Leicester. 

During the absence of Essex, his wife Lettice, the daughter of Sir Francis 
Knollys and cousin of the Queen, remained at Court. She was present at 
Kenilworth during the revels of 1575, and the subsequent progress through 
Staffordshire;* thus, whilst Essex was contending with difficulties and hardships 
in Ireland, his Countess was royally entertaining Elizabeth and her Court at 
Chartley, and, it is said, carrying on an intrigue with Leicester. 

In the autumn Essex returned home to gather together what remained 
of his property, at this time he treated Leicester as his enemy. 

But Ireland was going from bad to worse, and the return of Essex 
became necessary, Leicester was anxious to hasten it. In September, 1576, 
he landed in Dublin, three weeks afterwards he was dead. Leicester is credited 
with his murder as consistent with his character and antecedents. On his 
deathbed he wrote an earnest appeal to the Queen for her goodwill to his 
young son^ and to Burleigh to become the lad's guardian, and marry him 
to his daughter, and for his military education to be directed by the Earl 

of Sussex.t 

The widowed Countess secretly became Leicester's third wife. She retired 
from Court never to return, and settled at Drayton. Leicester's second wife 
was still alive, both marriages were as yet unknown to Elizabeth. 

Drayton, the ancient estate of the Bassets was inherited by the Staffords, 
and upon the attainder of the Duke of Buckingham in 1521, came to the 
Crown. Held under lease by the family of one Robinson a London mercer, 
it passed eventually to a London scrivener, but the Robinsons re-entered 
by force, when the Sheriff with 7,000 people, beseiged the place and beat 
down a part of the property with cannon. 



• Elizabeth proceeded from Kenilworth to Chartley, thence to Chillington, near Wolverhampton, and Stafford, 
and subsequently to Dudley Castle. . . , • . 

t Earl Sussex was Leicester's greatest opponent at Court, on his deathbed (June 1583,) addressing his friends 
he said— '-I must leave you to your fortunes, and the Queen's grace and goodness; but beware of the gipsy 
(Leicester), for he will be to hard for you all ; you know the beast as well as I do." 



THE THREE DEVEREUXS. 



211 



At a convenient distance from Chartley, and a safe distance from Court, 
Drayton was acquired by Leicester as a suitable home for his wife, the 
erstwhile Lady of Chartley, and here she was visited by her new Lord when 
he found it convenient. 




CHARTLEY CASTLE. (From Plot's Staffordshire.) 

The second Earl of Essex, Walter's eldest son Robert, fills too large a 
space in history for his career to be adequately dealt with in this brief 
chapter. He was born in 1567, and spent his early years at Chartley. 
In January 1577, he went to Lord Burleigh's house,* and to Cambridge the 

* At this period at the age of ten he was taken to Court, and when the Queen wished to kiss him, he 
refused the proffered honour. 



212 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



same year, and matriculated in 1579. His chief friend at College was 
Anthony Bagot, son of Richard Bagot of Blithefield, adjoining Chartley. 

For many years Essex was in an impoverished state, from the family 
estate having borne the costs of the Irish expedition. In the year of his 
matriculation, in a Latin letter to Burleigh, he complained of the scantiness 
of his clothing which was with difficulty supplied, whilst in 1585, his 
grandfather told him " his inherited lands were insufficient to maintain the 
poorest Earl in England." 

In 1584, he appeared at Court, introduced by his step-father with the 
unworthy object of counteracting Sir Walter Raleigh's rapidly growing 
influence with the Queen, " his goodly person and innate courtesy made him 
popular," and Elizabeth's favour and goodwill was extended to him, to an 
injudicious degree. 

In 1585, it was arranged to lodge the Scottish Queen at Chartley. 
Essex vehemently protested, and his grandfather Sir Francis supported him, 
saying, " It was bad policy to lodge the Queen in so young a man's house," 
nevertheless to Chartley she was taken.* Meanwhile Essex left for the 
Netherlands, and distinguished himself at the battle of Zutphen, where Sir 
Philip Sidney was slain. 

In 1587, he was again at Court and a great favourite with the Queen. 
" When she is abroad," writes his friend Anthony Bagot (3rd May,) " nobody 
goes with her but my lord of Essex, aud at night my lord is at cards or 
one game or another with her, that he cometh not to his lodging till the 
birds sing in the morning." In July, enraged at some slight shown by 
Elizabeth to his sister, Essex left the Court at midnight in a furious 
passion and proceeded to Theobald's, Lord Burleigh's seat, and from thence 
to Sandwich, but the Queen speedily sent for him back, and shortly 
afterwards appointed him Master of the Horse. 



* On the 4th November, 1585, Essex wrote his friend Richard Bagot, who was ordered to assist in removing 
Queen Mary to Chartley, "That he had stayed such removal, but to prevent the worst, desired his Steward to 
remove all bedding, hangings, &c., to Blithefield, and if she come to Chartley, it may be carried to Lichfield." 
Sir Amyas Paulet thereupon visited Dudley Castle and Chillington, but reporting against both places the Queen 
was in January taken to Chartley, where, alternately with the neighbouring mansion of Tixall, she remained for 
several months. 



THE THREE DEVEREUXS. 



213 



During the period of the Armada scare, he was kept at the side of EHzabeth 
at Tilbury, to the fretting and chafing of his spirit, whilst others were free 
to face the foe in the Channel, but in 1589, he secretly left the Court to 
give aid to Norris and Drake in the expedition to Portugal. Elizabeth who 
was angry at his escape, recalled him, and his presence at Court soon charmed 
away her anger. This hot-blooded desire for military glory was the 
passion of his life, but Elizabeth liked her favourites to be passive slaves not 
heroes. 

In 1586, at the age of 29, Sir Philip Sidney, soldier and poet, a 
nobleman too out-spoken for Elizabeth's Court, was, as we have seen, killed 
in battle. In 1590, Essex married his widow, Frances, daughter of Sir 




y. Gale, 



Wolverhampton. 



TIXALL GATEHOUSE. 



Francis Walsingham. The usual royal resentment followed ; he left England, 
and in 1591-2 was fighting the battles of Henry of Nevarre ; but the 
miserable jealousy, however, quickly subsided. For the next four years Essex 
was at home, " resolved to secure domestical greatness," and in the election 



214 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



of 1593, he used his influence to secure the return of his own nominees for 
Stafford, Lichfield, Tamworth and Newcastle. 

In 1596, Essex covered himself with glory by his bravery and humanity 
in the capture of Cadiz, yet his two months' absence enabled his enemies to 
poison the mind of the Queen with malicious insinuations. 

Two years later he conducted an expedition to Ireland, accompanied by 
the flower of the English nobility, and passed with his army through 
Staffordshire, staying at his mother's house at Drayton. In the Register of 
Tamworth Church is a very interesting record of the event : — 

1598 " Mem ; That the 30 day of April, Robert, Earl of Essex, went from Drayton Basset 
towards Ireland, with a hoste of men to make warre against the Earl of Tyrone, an Irishman." 

One of the brightest features of Devereux's life, was his warm and noble 
friendship for Francis Bacon, whose brilliant genius — through the personal 
dislike of his relatives the Burleighs — failed to ensure his advancement. The 
brave and generous Essex became a passionate suitor to the wayward Queen 
in his behalf. Bacon sought the Solicitor-Generalship, but being refused, he 
was complete overwhelmed and broken down, and retired to Essex's Villa at 
Twickenham. Essex now made him the princely gift of an Estate which 
Bacon afterwards sold under value for ;^ 1,800. 

When the hour of Devereux's trouble came, when by his intemperate 
and hasty conduct he had outraged law and reason, and defied the woman 
who but recently had boxed him on the ear, and he was brought to trial 
for his life, Bacon, who had obtained the post of Queen's Counsel, after a 
show of reluctance brought his great powers to the work of crushing the 
accomplished man, whose generous acts of friendship to him were almost 
without parallel in history. Essex was tried on the 19th February, 1601, 
on the 24th he was executed outside the Tower,* leaving a son, the third 
Earl, and two daughters. 

The son Robert, born 1592, was not restored to the Earldom until after 
Elizabeth's death ; and at the age of fourteen he was married to Frances, 

• A ring sent by Essex to the Queen, according to prearrangement, was, it is said, intercepted by the Countess 
of Nottingham, and on her death-bed she revealed the fact to Elizabeth, who never thereafter would take proper 
sustenance, or sleep in her bed. The Countess died at Arundel House, 2sth February, 1603, and Elizabeth on 
the 24th of the following month. 



THE THREE DEVEREUXS. 



215 



daughter of Thomas Howard, Earl of Suflfolk. This was the notorious woman 
whose subsequent marriage with the Court favourite, Carr, Viscount Rochester, 
is detailed at length in our histories and need not be repeated here. A part 
of his brief married life was passed at Chartley, and to Chartley he returned 
after his divorce. The historian Arthur Wilson, who was his Secretary or 
Groom of the Chamber, records that Essex lived in great magnificence at 
his venerable Castle in friendly communication with his neighbours, visiting 




IV. E. Weale 



DRAYTON MANOR. 



Tamworth. 



his grandmother's house at Drayton, and sometimes at his brother-in-law's, 
William Seymour, Earl Hertford's house in Wiltshire.* One of these tours, 
in which he was accompanied by Lord CromwelU and Wilson, is 



* William Seymour's first wife was the Lady Arabella Stuart. 

X Lord Cromwell had married a daughter of Robert Meverell of Throwley. 



2l6 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



humorously detailed by the latter. The Earl rode hard, usually 80 or 100 
miles in the day. From Drayton to Warwick, some 30 miles, was covered 
before dinner (about 1 1 o'clock) ; my Lord could not settle his stomach until 
he had enough to overlay his head. A mile beyond Warwick the waters 
were out ; Essex and Cromwell got through, but Wilson rode a barberie — 
a fiery nag — and getting parted by the water, they floundered into the 
midst of it and came dripping out. 

Thus passed seven years, when in 1620, Essex with his friend the Earl of 
Oxford, raised two companies of gentlemen volunteers to serve in the 
Palatinate. They returned home the same year, but again served as volunteers 
in Holland on several occasions. 

From 1642 until his death in 1646, Essex was one of the Parliamentary 
Commanders in the Civil Wars. The Chartley and Drayton houses remained 
with his descendants many years, but eventually the latter passed to the 
Peels, and was replaced by the present mansion known as Drayton Manor. 




^be lenb of tbe (Bunpowber BMot 

N the night of Thursday, the 7th of November, 1605, little 
parties of horsemen — in groups of two and three together 
— travel-stained and worn out with the fatigue of three 
weary days' ride for life, reached the friendly shelter of 
Stephen Littleton's house at Holbeche. The party com- 
prised the whole of the most active and desperate men, 
who for more than eighteen months had steadily plotted and schemed for the 
overthrow of the King and Parliament, and who, with fiendish pertinacity, 
had brought their plot to the culminating point, when, on the very threshold 
of accomplishment the bubble burst, the conspiracy was unmasked, the 
conspirators scattered and fled. 

The originator, author, and master-mind of the plot was Robert Catesby, 
of the ancient race of Catesbys of Lapworth. His chief adherents were— 
Robert Wintour or Winter, Esquire^ of Huddington, near Worcester ; his 
brother Thomas Winter, Gent. ; Guy Fawkes, Gent.^ of a Yorkshire family 
but serving with the Spanish army in Flanders ; John Wright, a broken- 
down Northern Esquire^ and his brother Christopher ; Sir Everard Digby, a 
kinsman of the Digbys of Coleshill ; Thomas Percy of the Northumberland 
Percys ; Ambrose Rokewood, who was renting Clopton House ; Stephen 
Littleton of Holbeche and his brother Humphrey ; John and Francis Grant 
of Norbrook, near Snitterfield ; Bates, a servant of Catesby ; and a party of 
Jesuit Priests and discontented Catholics from far and near. 

The main features of the enterprise are familiar to all. A vast body 
of gunpowder was gradually accumulated in the vaults beneath the Parliament 



2l8 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



House, to be fired by Fawkes at the moment of the King and nobles 
being assembled above, on the 5th November, engaged in opening of the 
session of Parliament. A vital part of the scheme was the gathering on 
the 5th, at Dunchurch, of all their available forces, well mounted, ostensibly 
to go a hunting, but practically, to gallop in force to Combe, and seize 
the young princess Elizabeth as a kind of hostage for safety. 

All were assembled, and whilst Catesby and the Wrights, Rokewood, 
Percy, Tom Winter and others, about a dozen altogether, were flying in 
detachments along the road from London, Sir Everard Digby, with Robert 
Winter, the Littletons, the Grants, Sir Robert Digby, and a host of Catholic 
squires and gentry, to most of whom the real nature of the gathering was 
yet a secret, were waiting at Dunchurch, with feverish anxiety, the express 
from London. When it came, all who dared, hastened to their homes, the 
remainder rode off through Warwick to their reputed head-quarters at Nor- 
brook and Clopton, led by the Grants and Rokewood ; but here their rest 
was a brief one, and on the 6th (Wednesday), pursued to the confines of 
Warwickshire by the Sheriff, Sir Richard Verney and his forces, they 
proceeded towards Huddington. Here they received absolution and such 
consolation as the Jesuit fathers could impart, and with the aid of the 
finest horses the district they had traversed afforded — which they had 
freely appropriated — they proceeded the following day to Holbeche, Stephen 
Littleton's house, at King's Svvinford, some four miles beyond Stourbridge. 

With the exception of Fawkes, who, lantern in hand, heroically stuck 
to his post and was seized on Monday midnight, the whole of the daring 
spirits of the plot rode into Littleton's house on the Thursday night. 
This was the last friendly roof to which they could look for shelter, and 
here it is manifest they had resolved to fight for their lives ; but a dramatic 
ending was in store for their ill-starred enterprise. 

Early on Friday morning, Littleton and Thomas Winter went abroad to 
" observe what companies came," meanwhile Catesby, Sir Everard Digby, 
Rokewood, Robert Winter, the two Wrights, John Grant, Thomas Percy, 
and Bates, remained in the house to get their arms and ammunition ready 
for the expected attack from the Sheriff. A portion of their powder had 



THE END OF THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 



219 



become " something dankish," and they placed above two pounds of it upon 
a platter before the wood fire to dry ; underneath the platter was the rest 
of their supply, some 17 or i81bs. in weight contained in a bag. This 
was the interesting position of the little force about to be besieged, when 
someone proceeded to mend the fire by throwing more wood upon it. A 
piece of lighted wood flew upon the platter, with remarkable results. 




A. H. Hill. 



BRADLEY HALL, KINGSWINFORD, 



WorJsley. 



Amongst those present, Catesby, Rokewood, and Grant, were the chief 
sufferers, the two first were most severely injured, whilst Grant was 
completely disfigured, and his eyes almost burnt out. The roof was blown 
off, and the bag of powder under the platter carried through the aperture, 



220 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



and alighted entire and unburnt in the court-yard outside, " which " as a 
quaint description states " if it had took fire in the room would have slain 
them all there, so that they never should have come to their trial." 

The accident has been described as miraculous — the miracle apparently 
was that the Sheriff was not saved further trouble. To Littleton and 
Winter, walking in the fields, the dire accident was reported in exaggerated 
terms. Catesby, Rokewood, and Grant, were said to be burnt up, and the 
destruction general. Littleton exhorted Tom Winter to flight, but no, he 
would stay and bury Catesby. Hastening back they found their comrades 
still alive and resolved to die there, and bravely they kept their word. 

Before noon, the Sheriff, Sir Richard Welch, arrived with his force, and, 
by his trumpeters, commanded them in the King's name to surrender ; 
they bade him defiance, and sent him word he must have a greater force 
to reduce them. 

By some accounts the house is said to have been fired by the explosion 
whilst the parley was proceeding. It is more probable that the besiegers 
finished the work of destruction which the explosion had begun. The 
besieged grew desperate and boldly sallied out ; Catesby, Percy, and Tom 
Winter stood shoulder to shoulder, the two former of them were mortally 
wounded with one shot, by one Hemming, a train soldier, who had a 
pension for it during his life. Catesby died on the spot, Percy not out- 
living him above two or three days ; Thomas Winter was shot in the shoulder. 
All this appears to have occurred in the court-yard. The two Wrights were 
slain at the same time, and Sir Everard Digby,* the burnt Rokewood, 
the wounded Tom Winter, the blinded Grant, with Bates, were all taken 
prisoners and conveyed to London ; whilst Littleton and Robert Winter for 
the moment escaped and concealed themselves in the woods ; and the great 
Gunpowder Plot was at an end. 



"* Before Digby's execution, he said with reference to his effects—" Besides the trunk of armour which was 
sent to Mr. Catesby's, I did carry but one other Trunk with me, which had in it cloathes of mine — as, a 
White Sattin Dublet, cut with purple, a Jerkin and a Hoase of De-roy Colour Sattin, laid very thick with Gold- 
lace, there were other garments in it of mine, with a new black Winter Gown of my Wife's, there was also 
in the Trunk 300/. in money, and this Trunk did I see safe at Mr. Littleton's House after the blowing up of 
the powder." There is something inexplicable in the speedy conveyance of bulky luggage so great a distance, 
possibly it may have been forwarded by his direction from Coughton where he had been staying. 



THE END OF THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 



221 



A proclamation for apprehending Robert Winter and Stephen Littleton 
was issued on Friday, the 8th November. Littleton was described as " a 
very tall man, swarth of complexion, brown coloured hair, no beard or 
little, about 30 years of age." After secreting themselves in the adjacent 
woods, they made for the house of Christopher White, a servant of Humphrey 
Littleton, at Rowley Regis, where, and at the house of one Holyhead, 




A. H. HilL 



HOI.BEACH HOUSE. 



Wordsley. 



in the same village, they were concealed until New Year's Day, when they 
went to the house of one Peck or Perks, in Hagley, in whose barn they 
lay concealed for nine days. Humphrey Littleton then removed them by 
night to Hagley House, confiding in the cook, John Fines ; who, however, 
betrayed them next morning and they were captured. 



222 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



A curious relation of this betrayal is to be found in a MS. in the 
British Museum,* called a " True declaration of the flight and escape of 
Robert Winter, Esq., and Stephen Lyttelton, gent, the strange manner of their 
living in concealment so long time ; and how they shifted to several places 
and in the end were descried and taken at Hagley, being in the house of 
Mr. Lyttelton." 

"Maister Humphrey Lyttelton, commonly called there Red Humphrey, 
because there is another Humphrey Lyttelton beside, taking advantage of his 
sister-in-law's absence, handled the matter in such sort, that about eleven 
o'clock in the night-time he had conveyed them to Hagley-house, not 
making any one of his council but one John Fynes, alias Jobber the 
Cook. 

" Meat was soon procured for the half-starved fugitives ; but wanting 
drink they knew not well how to sted themselves, because the butler was 
in bed, and calling so late to him for the key might perhaps prove 
suspicious. Therefore the cook gave this advice, that his mother selling 
drink in the town he would forthwith step thither and fetch some. Honest 
Jack Cook is no way distrusted, but his counsel allowed to be good, and 
he making haste to his mother's for drink tells her in secrecy that Maister 
Winter and Lyttelton, the traytors that were sought for by the King's 
Proclamation, were by Mr. Humphey Lyttelton's means at this instant 
entertained in Hagley-house, and therefore prayed her in the mornynge 
to raise the towne to take them, least he should not unsuspected get 
forth again himself to do it." 

Fines for his betrayal received a life annuity of 40 marks, whilst Peck 
and his man Holyhead were hanged for their shares in the transaction. 

Of the conspirators. Sir E. Digby, Robert Winter and J. Grant suffered 
death shortly afterwards at the West-end of St. Paul's, and Thomas Winter, 
Rokewood, and Fawkes, at the Palace Yard, Westminster. 



* Ayscough's Collection, 4160. 138. 




tTbrouGb Staffor^0bire in 1634. 

T the time Charles the First and his Queen were making a 
royal progress through Staffordshire to the North in 1634, 
three Volunteer officers of Norwich started upon a seven 
weeks' journey on horseback through twenty-six English 
counties. The report of the entire excursion is preserved 
in a MS. in the British Museum,* as that of " Three 
Southerne Commanders, in their places and of themselves and theix purses, 
a Captaine, a Lieutenant, and an Ancient, all Voluntary members of the 
noble Military Company in Norwich." 

Starting on Monday the nth August, they slept that night at Lynn, 
Tuesday at Spalding, thence to Deeping and Lincoln. The diary here 
shows that, having inspected ihe Castle and Cathedral early in the morning, 
they would not breakfast until they had completed their diary entries, " for 
feare our memories should beguile us of our morning's sight." This aroused 
the suspicion of the " Jaylor from the Castle," whom they had invited to 
breakfast. The Captain and Ancient were clad in green, like young 
foresters, and the Jailor mistook them '* for Clerkes of the Greene Cloth 
come about the monopolies," which they record as " the deep-reaching 
conceit of this jealous, curious coxcomb." 

From Lincoln the three jovial travellers went to Newark on Thursday, 
through Sherwood Forest to Doncaster on Friday, to Pomfret and York on 
Saturday, the week following to Ripon, Durham, and Newcastle. From 



Lansdowne Coll., No. 213, pp. 319-348. 



2^4 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Newark they travelled the same road the King and Queen had recently 
passed over. They now turned for Hexham aud Carlisle, then through 
Penrith, Kendall, Lancaster, to Wigan, thence to Chester. The Diary then 

proceeds : — 

" After having visited Nantvvich, on the river Weaver, with its ' Salt-wich Pitts,' crossing a 
part of Shropshire, into Staffordshire, and passing Dunnington, Crew Hall, Eccleshall Castle, 
and other places, ' wee hasted to the Shire Towne [Stafford], where wee left neere a mile from 
the entrance of the Towne, on a mounted Hill, a strong and stately commaunding Castle 
somewhat ruinated : And by it on ye top of that hill, a fayre House, wherein liueth a good 
old Lady, a most bountifuU Housekeeper — [Lady Stafford.]' 




OLD SHIRE HALL, STAFFORD. {From Plot's Staffordshire.) 



" At Stafford ' is a fayre Shire Hall, all built wth free stone, very high and stately, with 
6 open Arches on either side, wtli great fayre pillers in ye midst of either side, and all beneath 
pau'd wth free stone : it is indeed the cheife ffabricke and the grace of the whole Towne, if 
it were hansomely and cleanly kept. One large church receiues all the Inhabitants therein, 
wch is noti at all adorn 'd.' 



THROUGH STAFFORDSHIRE IN 1 634. 



22! 



" Thence, proceeding by Tixall Park, Chartley, Frodswell, and crossing the Trent at Owseley 
[Wolseley], w^h in two or three miles of Lichfeild, wee discouer'd as we rode a long, a most 
stately gorgeous House built Castle like, call'd Beaudsert (the L<i Paget's), the Gardens and 
walkes thereunto belonging there made to grace that sumptuous building, cost a very great 
Summe of Money. 

" By this time appear'd to vs those stately high spires of Lichfeild Cathedrall, standing as 
the City doth in a plaine, neither Hill nor Dale, but a sweet and pleasant scite, where the 
rich meads, and fertile ffeildes inviron her on euery side ; thither were we by that plaine way 




y. Garland^ 



Cannock. 



BEAUDESERT, PRESENT DAY. 



quickly brought to the Lilly white Swan, ini that sweet little City, and no sooner were we 
lighted, but the Cathedrall knell call'd vs away to prayers : there we entred a stately neat 
Fabricke, the Organs and voyces were deep and sweet, their Anthems we were much delighted 
with, and of the voices, 2 Trebles, 2 Counter-Tennors, and 2 Bases, that equally on each side 
of the Quire most melodiously acted and performed their parts. 

" Many fayre and ancient Monuments that were in this stately Minster we were curteously 
guided to the sight of them, and these especially we obserued : — 

' Bp. Langton's, who built the Lady Quire, and part of that stately Castle, belonging 
to this See, [Eccleshall Castle] where the last day we were so kindly entertayn'd : he 
also wall'd ye close. 



226 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



' Bp. Hayes, and Bp. Butlers ; and many other of Bishops, Deans, Prebends, and Canons, 
in Alablaster. 

' Of the Layitie 3 Monuments especially we obseru'd ; the Ld Bassets of Drayton Basset, 
in his Coat of Maile, and Armour of Proofe, ye wild Bore at his Head, and Feate. 

' The L<1 Pagets of Beaudsert, and his Lady. 

The Ld Paget his Son, and his Lady ; w^^^ the Tiger at the Top, on a large and rich 
Monument, of 8 faire black Marble Pillers, vi<^^ Monum* cost a good Summe of Money ; 
wch and more (as they report) was got from that fayre and ancient Church.' 

After noticing " ' rich Coaps of Cloth of Tissue, a fayre Communion Cloth of Cloth of 
Gold for the High Altar,' and plate in the vestry ; the Lady Chapel, ' hauing 8 stately fayre 
painted windows ; ' and the round Chapter-House," — the writer adds — " This ancient structure of 
looo yeares standing, hath, att the entrance into it, 2 stately strong and neat curiously-built 
spir'd Pyramids, and vpon that ffrontispice there is about lOO fayre Statues, curiously grauen 
and caru'd in ffree-stone, of Kings, Patriarchs, Prophets, Fathers and Apostles, that grace it 
much, especially in time past, when (as they say) they were all gilt. And as the outward 
part of this Building is fayre, so the inward part thereof is neat and glorious, w'h fayre 
pillers, rich windowes, and the Quire beautify 'd wth 6 fayre gilt Statues, 3 on either side.' 

In the Close, besides buildings belonging to the Dean, Prebends, &c., " there is a Pallace 
built castle-like, at the entrance whereof we mounted some dozen stayres into a spacious goodly 
Hall, as large as any we yet met with, all the roofe whereof is of Irish Timber, richly and 
curiously caru'd, and the couering of Lead, Church-like, the carving expressing sundry strange 
formes, and a great part thereof gilded." The City. — " Some few Knights and Gentlemen reside 
therein ; but amongst all their Gentlewomen, one more glorious than the rest was, by one of 
these Trauellers, accidentally (yet happily) discouer'd to be the rarest and most pfect modell 
they met w'h in all their Journey. She was Nature's utmost Perfection, and a composition 
of Grace, Beauty, and excellent Features, inferior to none, because transcending all, and meriting 
not onely observation, but w^h it admiration : we find this modest, proper, hansome vestall, not in 
a nunnery, but at the ffryers, in this sweet Cittie. Heere we would willingly have fallen out 
W'th precious Time, in depriuing vs, (as we desir'd) a full and satisfying sight of soe delicate 
a Creature, as it did, not a little, trouble us, that we could not affoord a visit to so fayre 
a Person." 

Hastening next to Derby, and " passing through Burton Market thither, we lighted to view 
that great and vast promising Caihedrall-like Church, wherein lyes the Monument of him that 
built her, as naked, & bare, & plaine as she. The large Abbey, now call'd the Mannor 
House, adjoining to her : & a faj're Bridge there is of 20 arches, built ouer Trent.' 

" Away then wee spurr'd for Darby, and as we pass'd on our way we left Tidbury Castle on 
or left hand, where his Ma^'e was pleased not long since to be, at the election of a new 
King. Wee gott bj' Noone to the Hart in Darby." 

The last entry refers to Charles I., with his Queen Henrietta Maria, 

being present at Tutbury during the ancient festival of appointing a King 

of the Minstrels. A part of this carnival was the Bull Running, but, as 

this was held on the 15th August, and according to this diary the King 



THROUGH STAFFORDSHIRE IN 1 634. 



227 



had then passed Newark (a three days' journey from Tutbury), the election 
of the King must have been held several days previously. The King is 
said to have stayed a fortnight at Tutbury in 1634 ; the visit may have 
been prolonged for the election of the King of the Minstrels, but not for 
the Bull Running. 

The diary entries relating to Lichfield and its Cathedral, so soon to be 
defaced by the havoc of war, are of considerable value and interest ; indeed, 
the vivid descriptions given throughout the entire journey render it 
desirable that the record should be better known. 




Brmina for tbe (Tonflict 

CHARLES THE FIRST IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 

ROM the period of Richmond's renowned march across 
Staffordshire, which doubled his strength, and led to his 
triumph on the 22nd August, 1485, until the 22nd August, 
1642, when King Charles unfurled his flag at Nottingham, 
our inland shire had been blessed with an immunity from 
war's alarms, and the greater evil of actual strife. 
Preparations for the inevitable conflict between the King and his Parlia- 
ment had proceeded on both sides, but a fratricidal war was now declared, 
and after three weeks of useless negotiation, during which his nephews, 
Rupert and Maurice, reached him with a small cavalry force, Charles decided 
upon a march westward, across Staffordshire. 

The royal forces, even when compared with the beggarly array with which 
Richmond at first marched, were insignificant. A first rendezvous was fixed 
at Wellington, and after a day's stay at Derby, Charles set out for 
Staffordshire. 

In 1634, the King had spent a fortnight at his Castle at Tutbury, 
associated with the sad history of his grandmother, the Scottish Queen, and 
upon the occasion of another visit in August, 1636, in order to ensure fine 
weather, he had issued a proclamation to the men of Staffordshire, to 
forbear the burning of fern. It is, therefore, unlikely that he would pass 
by a stronghold, which two months later he made a royal garrison, and in 
which he subsequently sought shelter, without resting upon his march. 



ARMING FOR THE CONFLICT. 



229 



His Stay there would probably be on Friday, the i6th September. The 
entry in the Uttoxeter Chronicle — 

" 1642, paid to them that swept Mr. Wood's Hall for King Charles the first, one shilling," 

would refer to Saturday, the 17th, and the next entry — 

"Trained soldiers' pay, here and to Stafford to wait on the King, 34s. 6d.," 

points to Sunday, the i8th. 

On his way to Stafford on that 
day, he would pass Chartley, the 
Castle of the Earl of Essex, who, 
as commander of the forces of 
Parliament, was now avenging the 
wrongs received at the hands of 
King James, Thus, on Monday, the 
19th, Wellington was reached, as 
shown in Clarendon's ponderous 
history. In his progress through 
Staffordshire the King's forces were 
greatly augmented. At Wellington 
the King stood in their midst and 
made a speech, and the next day, 
the 20th, Shrewsbury was reached. 
On the 1 2th October, with an 
army now numbering 8,000 men, 
the King set out for Banbury, 
through Bridgnorth, and reached 
Wolverhampton on Saturday, the 
15th, resting on Sunday. 
The important orders to Lichtield and other places, " Given at our Court 

at Wolverhampton, this 17th day of October, 1642," dispatched early on 

Monday, were probably prepared the previous day. 

Very little has been recorded of these marches through Staffordshire, and 

that little is contradictory and misleading. A rendezvous was fixed for 

Tuesday morning at Sutton Coldfield, the direct road for this point, and, 




TUTBURV CASTLE, THE HIGH TOWER. 



23© HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 

the route, perhaps, taken by the main army, was through Walsall. The king, 
however, reached Aston Hall on Monday, either through Perry Barr or by 
a road nearer to Birmingham.* 

The King slept at Aston Hall on the Monday night, and proceeded next 
morning to meet and address the soldiers, on the spot since known as the 
King's Standing. The assembly may have consisted only of new recruits 
from Lichfield and elsewhere, and Rupert's portion of the army have gone 
forward by another route and encountered Lord Willoughby. 

Leaving the encampment with these forces, the King proceeded direct to 
Packington, where he slept on Tuesday night, and the next day, the 19th, 
to Kenilworth. On the 21st he reached Southam, and on the 23rd, Sunday, 
the battle of Edge Hill was fought. 

For a few months Staffordshire was free from hostilities ; yet active 
preparations for the fray proceeded. Lichfield was garrisoned by Lord 
Chesterfield, Tutbury by Lord Loughborough, and Dudley by Colonel Leveson 
for the Royalists, who also held Stafford, Wolverhampton, Eccleshall, and other 
places. Burton-on-Trent, of strategic importance, was taken and re-taken, 
and continued to suffer from sudden assaults throughout the war ; whilst 
Leek was a stronghold of the Parliamentary party. To the most remote 
parts of the county the war fever spread, and men ranged themselves on 
either side as inclination or their interest dictated ; friend against friend, 
neighbour against neighbour. The same reckless sacrifice of life which 
destroyed the Plantagenets and gave Richmond a reign of 24 years, was 
about to be re-enacted, until the kingship of Charles, extending over a like 
period, should be brought to a tragical end. 



* In the British Museum is a copy, probably unique, of one of those remarkable and inaccurate "True 
Relations," printed at London the 2oih October, 1642, which gives a very contradictory account of two small 
engagements near Birmingham, on the 17th and 18th, between Lord Willoughby and Prince Rupert's forces ; 
this, probably, refers to one and the same engagement with some troops accompanying the King, yet in 
subsequent "True Relations," the Roundheads, on the one hand, allege that Birmingham was plundered by the 
King's forces in this march, and, the Cavaliers on the other hand, whilst admitting the plundering, assert that 
the King expressly ordered that there should be no plundering, and that he executed two officers for breach of 
orders — moreover, that the Birmingham men afterwards seized upon the King's carriages containing his plate 
and valuables which were follovving the forces, and conveyed them to Warwick Castle. 




DAM STREET, LICHFIEI.D. 
(The sfot ivhere Lord Brooke fell.) 



Vot Siege of tbe Cloee. 

A BELEAGUERED CITY'S SORROWS. 




HE story of siege and counter-siege endured by the city of 
Lichfield during the Civil War, presents several features 
of romantic and pathetic interest whereby it stands out 
from the other incidents of the strife between Royalist 
and Roundhead which occurred in Staffordshire. Early in 
1643, Clarendon tells us, "some gentlemen of that county, 
rather well aflFected than experienced, before they were well enough provided 
to go through their work, seized on the Close in Lichfield for the King." 
The Cathedral Close, thus garrisoned, under the command of the Earl of 
Chesterfield, was, at that time, strongly fortified by walls and bastions, and 
was rendered even more siegeworthy by a long pool or morass, traversed 
by two causeways, which separated it from the rest of the city. 

While the Royalist force, aided by the loyal townsmen, thus entrenched 
themselves within the Close, and strengthened their position therein, the 



232 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Parliamentarians were no less busy in throwing up barricades and earth- 
works, to facilitate their attack on the sacred enclosure. On St. Chad's day, 
March 2nd, 1643, the first siege began, under the command of Robert Lord 
Brooke, who " planted his great guns against the south-east gate of the 
Close." * But the siege opened inauspiciouly for the besiegers. The Royalists 
had mounted long guns (called drakes) on the great central tower of 
the Cathedral, and on this morning two men were in charge of the 
guns, their object being to harass the besiegers by occasional well-directed 
shots from this coign of vantage. The figure of Lord Brooke, richly 
caparisoned in " plush cassock " and a brightly gleaming helmet of steel 
with gilt bars, was an easy target for the gunners on the tower, and as 
he stood near the besieging party in Dam Street, he happened to lift his 
beaver in order to see more clearly what execution was being done, when 
a shot from the tower (aimed by a man known as " Dumb Dyott "),t 
struck him in the eye and he fell dead. 

Naturally this strange fatality was regarded as an omen of good by the 
Royalists, and was made much of in every way. Clarendon says " there 
were many discourses and observations upon his death, that it should 
be on St. Chad's day, by whose name . . . that church had been 
anciently called." Sir Walter Scott also refers to the coincidences attending 
the death of Lord Brooke,! observing that '* the Royalists remarked that 
he was killed by a shot fired from St. Chad's Cathedral, upon St. 
Chad's Day, and he received his death wound in the very eye with 
which he had said he hoped to see the ruin of all the cathedrals in 
England." 

But the death of Lord Brooke brought little relief to the besieged party, 
for the Parliamentary force, under Sir John Gell (who came hither from 



* Dugdale. 

t " Undoubtedly one of that family which at that time so zealously maintained the cause of the King, and a 
name which stands conspicuous in the annals of the city of Lichfield from the earliest period of its incorpora- 
tion to the present time." — Harwood, History of Lichfield. 

\ " When fanatic Brook 

The fair Cathedral itormed and took ; 

But thanks to Heaven and good Saint Chad 

A guerdon meet the spoiler had." — Mariiiion. 




ANCIENT GATEWAY TO THE CLOSE, LICHFIELD. 
(Built by Bishoj) Langton in the fourteenth century.) 



234 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Derby), continued the siege with great vigour, although somewhat harassed 
by a Royalist force which had come from the King's garrisons at Rushall 
and Tamworth to the help of their friends within the walls of Lichfield 
Close. On the following Sunday, March 5th, the red flag of defiance was 
hauled down from the steeple of the Cathedral by the Earl of Chesterfield, 
and favourable terms of surrender were agreed upon — the sufferings of those 
within the Close having been too great to hold out any longer — and the 
first siege was at an end. 

After Prince Rupert had left Birmingham in flames on Easter Tuesday, 
1643, he marched directly towards Lichfield, and finding the Close strongly 
garrisoned by the Parliamentary forces, under Colonel Rousvvell, entered upon 
a second siege thereof. He erected batteries in Gaia Field, an eminence 
overlooking the northern part of the Close, but after ten days' attack, 
he was still unsuccessful in silencing the garrison within the walls. He, 
therefore, at the end of that time, took more resolute measures. After 
draining the moat, and thus getting access to the walls, he sprung two 
mines, one of which was successful in breaking open a way into the Close, 
which he stormed and took with great loss on his side, and reinstated 
therein a Royalist garrison, under the command of Colonel Harvey 
Bagot. 

But with the city in the possession of the losing side in the great strife 
which had rent the whole country, there could be no hope of peaceful 
times for some time to come. The Close must have been frequently in a 
state of siege, and more particularly during the early part of 1646, after 
which, " the Governor being satisfied of the desperate situation of the 
King's affairs, surrendered the fortress to Adjutant General Louthian, upon 
honourable conditions." * 

The havoc wrought by the several attacks upon the Close, was very 
severe. During the occupation by the Parliamentarians, great damage was 
done to the Cathedral. They broke down the monuments and defaced 
the rich sculpture, destroyed many very precious records, and battered in 
the rich stained glass windows. Dugdale says — " They kept courts of guard 

* Harwood. See facsimile on page 236. 



THE SIEGE OF THE CLOSE. 235 



in the cross aisles ; broke up the pavement ; every day hunted a cat with 
hounds throughout the church, deUghting themselves in the echo from the 
goodly vaulted roofs ; and to add to their wickedness, brought a calf into 
it, wrapped in linen ; carried it to the font ; sprinkled it with water ; and 
gave it a name in scorn and derision of that holy sacrament of baptism." * 

The fabric of the Cathedral had also suffered severely during the siege. 
On the first day of the siege, under Lord Brooke, the central spire was 
severely injured, and afterwards, a shot which struck away a portion of the 
lower walls, caused it to totter and fall with a crash through the roof of 
the choir, causing great havoc and destruction within the building, t 

In the city itself, the besiegers wrought destruction on the beautiful 
eight-arched market cross, which had been erected by Dean Denton in the 
earlier part of the i6th century. 

But the sacrilege was not all on one side, for Prince Rupert, after he 
had stormed the Close, carried away from the Cathedral the communion 
plate and linen, and whatever other valuables were still left therein. 

During the long period of storm and stress which the city endured, it 
had its Solomon Eagle, in the person of George Fox, the founder of the 
Quakers, who traversed its streets, bareheaded and shoeless, crying out 
aloud at intervals, " Woe to the bloody City of Lichfield.'''' This message, he 
afterwards declared, was given to him during his early wanderings — as it 
would seem in a condition of semi-trance — as he came in sight of the 
triple-spired city. 
After the restoration of the monarchy, John Hacket was appointed to 



* "Short view of the Late Troubles in England." 
t The following extracts from Sir William Dugdale's diary have reference to the despoiling of the Cathedral : — 
" 1650. September. The Gunner y' shott downe Lichfeild steeple in y" seige (a" 1646) this month in shooting 
of a Cannon at Stafford, for triumph upon Major G'rall Harrison his coming hither, was kild by y* breach 
thereof ; his chin and one Arme being torne off. He lived a day or two. About the beginning of this p'sent 
month of October, was the stately Cathedrall at Lichfeild sett upon to be totally ruined, by Colonell Danvers 
Governour of Stafford ; who, by authoritye from y'' Parliam' imployed workemen to strippe off the leade from 
the roofe." 

" 1652- July 26th. This day was j-* faire Bell called Jesus Bell, at Lichfeild, knockt in peices by a 
Presbiterean Pewterer, who was y' chiefe officer for demolishing of y"^ Cathedrall. About y' Bell was this 
inscription : — 

I am y'" Bell of Jesus, and Edward is our King, 
S''- Thomas Heywood first caused me to ringe." 



236 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



the bishopric,* and at the beginning of the year 1662, visited Lichfield to 
find the Cathedral of his Diocese a pitiable wreck. But he set to work 

resolutely at once to restore it 



fAvJlTJCLE^ 

V i 'yortheD<ilivcringupof 

W 0« TW^jr thct^.^^ this iniUnc J u l T. 
vith 

A L I s T oF the tSpmmandcrs, Of" 
ficers , and Gcntlemcit^^of Quality that^^ 
were to the Clofe at che Surrender tbetcof, ^' 

of oflc Hatry Sfwf»,conccf ning tome pr 

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^K ' ogj^iNeKoufe of Comiooni. /«^ tt. id^A 

THE ARTICLES OF SURRENDER. 
{Facsimile of Title-pa^e.) 



to its former beauty. " On the 
morning of his arrival/' says 
Harwood, "he roused his 
servants, and with his own 
coach-horses, with teams and 
hired labourers, he began to 
remove the rubbish, and laid 
the first hand to the pious 
work." He himself gave 
^1,668 (the equivalent of 
_^ 1 0,000 at the present day), 
and the prebendaries and canons 
gave half of their income to 
the fund for restoring the 
Cathedral, and Charles II. con- 
tributed for the same purpose 
" 100 fair timber trees," from 
Needwood Forest. Thus gradu- 
ally, year by year, the fair 
church regained its ancient 
loveliness, and on the 24th 



December, 1669, it was solemnly re-consecrated by the good bishop, who 

has justly been styled " the third founder " of the Cathedral, as Bishop 

Walter Langton in the fourteenth century had been styled its " second 
founder." 



* The last bishop before the outbreak of the Civil War was Robert Wright, who was committed to the 
Tower (with nine other bishops) by the House of Commons in 1641, for drawing up a protestation against their 
proceedings. He died in 1643, and was buried in Eccleshall Church. During the turmoil of the Civil War, 
and throughout the Commonwealth period, Lichfield was practically without a bishop, for although Accepted 
Trewen was appointed and consecrated to the see, in the Chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1644, he 
remained a bishop without a diocese till the Restoration, when he was made Archbishop of York. 



^be battle of Ibopton Ibeatb. 




N Sunday, the 5th March, 1643, the Earl of Chesterfield 
ended a short and inglorious career as a soldier by the 
surrender of the defences of Lichfield to Sir John Gell, 
the rebel he affected to despise. From Lichfield to 
Stafford — ^a town with walls and gates, which centuries 
before might have withstood a siege — was ten miles, 
and to Stafford the Royalists from Lichfield mostly removed. The 
Earl of Northampton was on his way to relieve Lichfield ; on the 15th, 
ten days after the surrender, he reached Coleshill. It appears to have 
occurred to Northampton and to Gell about the same time to proceed to 
Stafford — the latter to join the larger forces of Sir William Brereton, then 
on his march from Cheshire. 

Clarendon, with his customary disdain for dates, records — 
" Yet some Gentlemen betook themselves to the Town of Stafford and resolved to defend 
that place, against which Sir John Gell drew his late flesh'd Troops. But the Earl of 
Northampton (who intended the relief of Lichfield if they had had any patience to expect it), 
with a strong party of Horse and Dragoons from his Garrison of Banbury, came seasonably 
to their succour, and put himself into the Town, and the same night beat up a Quarter of 
the Enemies, in which he kill'd and took above an hundred of their Horse. Sir John Gell 
retired so far as to meet with Sir William Brereton^ who, from Nantwich, was coming to joyn 
with him in subduing of Stafford." 

It is, of course, impossible to obtain a truthful account of the Civil War 
battles from the authorised versions. The ex parte reports of the engagement 
at Hopton Heath agree only in showing it to have been a most obstinately- 
fought battle. By one account Sir John Gell is said to have reached 



238 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



within four miles of Stafford when the Earl fell upon his rear and took 
forty prisoners and six drakes. This was apparently on Saturday the i8th; 
but help was near, for on that day Sir William Brereton was at Newcastle. 

On Sunday morning he marched to 
Stone, thence by Sandon to Salt 
Heath, where he joined forces with 
Gell about two o'clock, making a body 
computed at 3,000 foot and horse, 
with artillery. 

This number was largely made up 
of recent recruits from the Moorlanders, 
zealous volunteers, who had suffered 
from the raids of the Royalist, Colonel 
Hastings. 

The Earl was already in the field. 
He must have been aware of Brere- 
ton's advance, but scarcely of his 
increased force. His army, if numeri- 
cally inferior to his adversaries, was 
better equipped and trained and 
stronger in cavalry, and he at once made a vigorous charge through the 
ranks of the enemy. Rallying his men, he again made a dash at another 
portion of the enemy's horse, and, says Clarendon, " so totally routed them 
that they had scarce a horse left upon the field." In the charge, and 
whilst near the opposing body of foot, which stood its ground, the Earl's 
horse was, in the first volley, shot from under him, and he found himself 
alone and surrounded. Disdaining quarter, he was stricken down with the 
butt end of a musket, his body being afterwards pillaged and stripped.* 




THE HIGH HOUSE, STAFFORD. 



'' Sir William Brereton, in his written report, says, " But I cannot perceive he was known before he was 
dead, pillaged, and stripped, when, though it was in the night, I viewed his body lying naked upon the 
ground. I cannot percieve there was any more care or 'respect either of his person when he was wounded 
and before he was dead, or of his body when he lay upon the field, than of the meanest soldier in either 
army. But notwithstanding," he proceeds, "our foot, through God's blessing, was so successful the enemy 

ere not discouraged making a second as desperate assault." 



THE BATTLE OF HOPTON HEATH. 



239 



Notwithstanding the death of the Earl, the battle was continued until 
suspended by the shades of night, for the ground was found to be treacherous 
through pits and holes in the ground. The Royalists stood all night on 

the field ; at daylight, says Clarendon, 
no enemy was to be seen. Brereton 
and Gell with their forces had moved 
away in the night with the Earl's naked 
body as a trophy of war. The Royalist 
army had suffered in the loss of too many 
of its officers to permit of pursuit, so all 
retired within the walls of StaflFord. 

Whilst the report of Sir William 
Brereton gives but little detail of the 
actual fight, and is silent as to the night 
retreat, it is yet strong in figures and 
piety. 

" In the success of this battle the Lord was 
pleased much to show Himself to be the Lord 
of Hosts and God of victory, for when the day 
was theirs (sic), and the field won, He was pleased 
mightily to interfere for the rescue and deliverance 
of those who trusted in Him." 

The peculiar circumstance of the Earl's 
death he attributes to the wisdom and 
goodness of Divine Providence, and whilst the Royalists estimated the 
enemy's strength as double that of their own. Sir William, on the other 
hand, avers, " Some report there were 2,500 horse of theirs, whereas we had 
not 400 horse at most." " There were near 100 of their dragoons slain in the 
place where I cannot discern that we lost more than two or three." " I do 
not think that all our foot there present could make 500 men." *' We have 
been informed some of their party confess they lost near three score of 
their most eminent commanders, but not any officer or commander who I 
can hear of slain upon our party." The hearsay report continuing thus 
for a considerable length. 



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THE HIGH HOUSE, STAFFORD. 
(Back Vie^u.) 




yas. Gale. 



OLD HALL. 
The niic'eiit Seat oj the Levesons, WolveiJiaiiiptoii. 



IVolverhamptoit. 



tbe liaolverbampton Mod Staplere. 

URING the period when Charles I. was passing and repassing 
through Staffordshire, one of his chief supporters and one 
of the most potent men of the county was Sir Richard 
Leveson, K.B., of Trentham and Wolverhampton, represen- 
tative of one of the two great families of Leveson or 
Lueson, whose remarkable connection with Willenhall, 

Wednesbury, and the good old Market Town of Wolverhampton, had 

existed from a period shortly after the Conquest. 

Originally cultivators of the soil at Willenhall, within the royal Chase of 

Cannock, two distinct branches of the Luesons were attracted by the 




THE WOLVERHAMPTON WOOL STAPLERS. 24I 



commercial advantages of the larger town. The younger branch, descended 
from William, the son of Richard Leveson, of Willenhall, was in 1643 
represented by Sir Thomas Leveson, the Royalist Governor of Dudley 
Castle, whilst the representative of the descendants of the elder brother 
John, distinguished as of Prestwood and LilleshuU, was the equally loyal 
Sir Richard Leveson, of Trentham. 

The early commercial fame of Wolverhampton was based on its wool 
stapling trade, although in 1340 there were no merchants in the town. 
Yet in 1354 — when the wool staple was removed from Flanders — Wolver- 
hampton was one of few English staple towns fixed upon by Parliament. 
For a few years the staple was again changed to Calais, but speedily the 
trade came back to England, and the Levesons were among the foremost 
merchants of the staple ; and whilst Birmingham was famous for its tanners, 
Wolverhampton became equally famous for its wool merchants.* 

The export of English wool, which, next to Spanish, was pre-eminent in 
Europe for its excellence, was rigidly controlled, and at one period limited 
to the port of London, and when, at a later date, many English towns 
became recognised markets, a lasting and lucrative trade with London 
resulted. The enterprise of the Wolverhampton merchants is apparent. 
The Levesons and other local men followed the example of Richard 
Whittington (who came from the neighbouring town of Kinver — early noted 
for its woollen trade) and became citizens of London. 

Thus in 1508 Stephen Genings, a merchant taylour, a native of Wolver- 
hampton, became Lord Mayor of London, and Stowe records that " This 
Stephen Gennings, Maior, founded a free schoole at Wolfrunhampton in 
Stafford shire." 

At this time Richard Leveson, the representative of the elder or Prestwood 
branch, married Jane, daughter of Sir Thomas Bradbury, Lord Mayor of 
London, and the descendants of their two sons James and Nicholas formed 



The following list of Bailiffs of the Staple of Wolverhampton was printed in 1868 by G. T. L. : — 
1483— Wm. Jennins, 1491— Walter Leveson, 1496— V. Turton, 

1485 — Wm. Leveson, 1492— Robert Moseley, 1497— Roger Pype, 

i486 — Richard Gough, 1493 — Edward Giffard, 1499 — Wrottesley. 

1490— Giles Osborne, 1495 — J. Higham, 



242 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



two houses, viz., the Levesons of Wolverhampton, and of Haling, Kent. 
Meanwhile the Levesons of the younger branch of the original stock were 
bartering wool in the market place, accumulating riches, and marrying into 
various County families, Walter, the head of that house, having married 
Elizabeth, the daughter of Walter Arden, of Park Hall, the ancestor of 
Shakespeare. The pedigree of these Levesons is one of unusual interest ; 
we are, however, more immediately concerned with the children of Richard 
and Jane (Bradbury), viz., James, a wealthy and influential merchant of the 
Staple of London, Wolverhampton, and Lilleshull, and Nicholas, of London 
and Haling. The latter held the high office of Sheriff of London in 
1534, whilst the former, who first married a Wrottesley, was a great 
buyer of Abbey properties, particularly at Stafford, Lilleshull, and Wenlock, 
the bells of which latter Abbey he purchased. He had also, in conjunction 
with Richard Wrottesley, Esq., obtained a lease of the Lordship or Manor 
and Market of Wolverhampton, granted by John Vesey, the Dean of 
Wolverhampton and Windsor, afterwards Bishop Vesey, whose eldest sister 
had married a John Leveson. This lease, which by custom was renewable 
for a rent of ;^38, constituted the holder Lord of Wolverhampton.* 

James died in 1553, and his son Sir Richard became manorial lord. He 
married Mary Fitton (daughter of Sir Edward Fitton, of Gawsworth), and 
died in 1561. Whilst his son (Walter) was under age, his brother (Edward 
Leveson) held the manor as his Executor, but, dying soon afterwards, his 
widow (Elizabeth) — a Moreton, of Haughton — had to defend a very remarkable 
Chancery suit brought about 1570 by John Leveson, Esq., Thomas Leveson, 
William Hoo, and other leading inhabitants of Wolverhampton, as to the 
appointment of the Bellman of the Market. t 

This Walter Leveson, afterwards Sir Walter, was the father of the famous 



* Among the Deans of Windsor, who were the manorial lords, were (1445) John Bermingham, (1460-70) William 
Duddeley, (1501) Christopher Ursewyck (the favourite Chaplain of Henry VII.), and (1517) John Vesey. 

t From particulars of this suit in the " Midland Antiquary," Vol. 2, p. 176, it appears that the Bellman of 
the Church was also gatherer of the tolls and controller of the Market, and "hath used for to ring the Market 
bell and to provide ladders to sett sacks of corn upon in the Market." That Edward Levison had discharged 
one William Wainwright and appointed George Upton to be his Officer of Tolls, Corne, and to ring the Market 
bell at such time as was most convenient for that his Market in Wolverhampton aforesaid to begin. The 
matter was remitted to John Wrottesley and Mathew Moreton, Esquires. 




y\2f-s^_ 



George Phcenix, 



Wolverhampton. 



WOLVERHAMPTON CHURCH. 
[Fr07ii the Market Place.) 



244 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Sir Richard Leveson, Vice-Admiral of England, who, when only nineteen 
years old, served as a volunteer on board the Ark Royal^ and fought under 
Drake against the Armada, and subsequently under the Lord High Admiral 




James Gale. Wolverhampton. 

VICE-ADMIRAL SIR RICHARD LEVESON, KT. 
Memorial in Wolverliatnpton Church. 



(Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham), whose daughter (Margaret) he married, 

but left no issue. He is, however, said to have left two children by his 

kinswoman (Mary Fitton), a lady strangely mixed up with the history of 



THE WOLVERHAMPTON WOOL STAPLERS. 245 



William Earl of Pembroke, and Shakespeare, as the dark woman of the 
Sonnets. 

After a short but brilliant career, in which he became " Admiral of the 
narrow seas," and commanded a squadron sent out to the Azores to look 
out for Spanish treasure ships, he died in 1605, at the age of 35 (having 
only a year before been appointed Vice-Admiral), and was buried at Wolver- 
hampton. A fine portrait of this brave compeer of the old sea-dogs of 
England (said to be by Vandyck) is in the possession of the Duke of 
Sutherland. His great estate passed to his kinsman, Sir Richard Leveson 
(descended of Nicholas the Sheriff), afterwards K B., of Trentham, who 
erected the brass statue to the memory of the gallant seaman, and for 
a long period upheld the high position attained by this remarkable family. 

Having married Catherine (one of the daughters of Lady Alice Dudley — 
daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh, of Stoneleigh, the worthy but deserted wife 
of the unworthy Robert Dudley, only son of the Earl of Leicester), Sir 
Richard had sufficient influence with Charles L to cause that lady to be 
created Duchess of Dudley.* 

Sir Richard lived till 1661. Previous to his death, and probably by his 
help, the Duchess had recovered considerable portions of the Dudley estates 
She was notable for her charities, and her daughter (Sir Richard's widow), 
— who died in 1673, ^^'^s the founder of the Almshouses at Temple Balsall 
and other charities in several counties — dying childless, the Leveson estates 
were left to Frances (the daughter of John, brother of Sir Richard). She 
married Sir Thomas Gower, Bart., from whom the Leveson Gowers, Dukes 
of Sutherland, and Earls Granville are descended. 



» The patent of creation, May 23, 1644, is a remarkable document. It acknowledges the mean fraud (piously 
believing his father did not know the truth) by which James 1. deprived the Dudleys of wealth and dignity, 
restores her to rank, and promises to do more if able. 



3nci&ent0 of TMIlar. 

THE DIARY OF A ROYALIST COLONEL. 




FTER the battle of Hopton, in which, says quaint Tom 
Fuller, " The royalists may be said to have grd the day 
and lost the sun which made it," the body of the loyal 
and valiant Spencer, Earl of Northampton, was taken to 
Uttoxeter, probably by Sir John Gell, but Brereton's forces 
moved the next day towards Wolverhampton, and at three 
o'clock in the morning took possession. 

A fortnight later, April 3rd, Birmingham fell to the forces of Prince 
Rupert,* who proceeded to Walsall and took Rushall Hall, Mistress Leigh, 
in Colonel Leigh's absence, valiantly defending it with credit. Lichfield 
was reached on the 8th, and captured on the 21st, just as Prince Rupert 
was recalled by the King to Oxford, Colonel Hastings and his forces having 
also left Newcastle for Oxford on the 8th. 

On the 14th of May Sir William Brereton took possession of Stafford as 
he had previously Wolverhampton, in the dead of night, and as reported by 
him, " almost peaceably, all being in their beds, seized a great number of 
prisoners. Colonel Lane was slain." On the 25th June, Tamworth Castle 
fell to the Parliament forces, after a two days' siege. 

In July, Queen Henrietta passed through Staffordshire with the large army 
raised in Holland. Having taken Burton-on-Trent, she proceeded, on the 
7th, by way of Croxall and Lichfield to Walsall, staying, it is said, at 

* In Shireland Lane, Smethwick, the Earl Denbigh was shot. He was removed to Cannock, where hr died 
of his wounds. Thus in a fortnight two royalist earls were slain in Staffordshire, 



INCIDENTS OF THE WAR. 



247 



Caldmore. On Saturday, the 8th, she wrote from Walsall to the King : 
" My dear Heart, I shall stay here to-morrow, because our soldiers are very 
weary. We shall start on Monday and go by the road you told me by 
Fred." The next day, Sunday, she again wrote : " I shall not give up my 
intention to advance if I can get by one of the two roads." Marching on 
Monday to King's Norton, she would proceed, by Tame Bridge and Sandwell, 
for Oldbury or Smethwick, avoiding Edgbaston and Birmingham. 




TAMWORTH CASTLE AND CHURCH, IN 1780. 
(From an old print.) 

Meanwhile Sir William Brereton, by repairing the old fortifications, made 
his position in Stafford a strong one, and then sallied forth to reduce the 
old castle. Here, however, he met with his match. " The Oulde Ladye 
Stafford," he says, " had betaken herself to the castle, removed her family, 
and, some say, all her goods."* He alternately wheedled, threatened, and 

* She lived at a house near to the old dilapidated castle. 



248 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



bullied. " Wee spent much time upon this treaty, but it was vain and 
fruitless. Wee conceive her heart was hardened." He calls the defenders 
*' incendiaries," and says, " I doubt not the Lord will measure unto them a 
bloody portion of drinke." He then had the outbuildings " sett on fier to 
try whether these would worke their spirits to any relentinge, but all in 
vain." 

Instead of relenting the defenders shot some of his men and horses, " which, 
says the despatch writer, *' did provoke the rest to a fierce revenge," or in 
plain English, Sir William burnt every available building near the castle to 
the ground, but the stronghold they could not take was afterwards found 
deserted, and was subsequently demolished. 

In September, Brereton besieged Eccleshall Castle, a relief force under 
Colonel Hastings being defeated and driven away ; on the other hand Chil- 
lington was taken by Colonel Leveson. 

Hitherto the neighbourhood of Leek had been controlled by the Round- 
heads under Colonel Sir John Bowyer, Bart., of Knyperley. * In November, 
1643, however, Colonel Leveson took a large force and defeated the Moor- 
landers, quartering for a fortnight in Leek, and then pursuing the enemy 
towards Derby. 

That the neighbourhood of Leek had not escaped the evils of war 
previously is evident from the statement in the Huntbach MS., i. 55. 

" William Trafford, of Swythamley, Esq., who was aged 47, 2nd April, 1663, was shot at 
ye beginning of ye Warres. Did oppose Capt". Venables, of Leek, for beating a drum for 
ye Parliament, and ye drummer's name was Saml- Endon, of Rudyard. f 



* In 1668, Dugdale, as recorded in his diary, pulled down the atchievements in Knyperley Church, hung up 
by Sir John Bowyer and his Lady. 

t Notwithstanding the apparent disparity of ages, this Squire Trafford may be identical with the royalist 
Squire whose tombstone in Leek Churchyard is so well-known. It is inscribed " Wm. Trafford, of Swythamley, 
Esq., died December lo, 1697, aged 93," and bears a crest, "A man threshing," with the motto, "Now 
Thus." This has been conveniently made to have originated through this same Squire having outwitted Crom- 
well's soldiers at Swythamley, but "The Curious Discourses," written by eminent antiquaries and collected by the 
antiquary Thomas Hearne, states, " Ye aunceyntest armorial device I know or have read is that of Traffords, of 
Trafford, in Lankashyre, whose crest is a labouring man with a flayle in his hande threshinge and this written 
mott, ' Now thus,' which they say came by this occasion, that hee and other gentylmen opposing themselves 
agaynst some Normans who came to invade them, ihys Traford dyd them much horte and kept the passage 
against them. But that at length the Normans having passyd the ryver came sodenly upon hym, and then 
hee disguysing hymselfe went into hys barne and was threshynge when they enteryd yet being knowen by 
some of them and demmanded why he soe abashed hymselfe, answered ' Now thus.' " 



INCIDENTS OF THE WAR. 



249 



In December, a Parliamentary force was sent to Trentham, the stately 
mansion erected 10 years previously by Sir Kichard Leveson, to prevent it 
being made a garrison. 

Among the chief incidents of the struggle during the following year, 1644, 
were the capture of PatshuU by Sir Wm. Brereton, February 14, and of 




TRENTHAM (17TH CENTURY). {From Plot* s Staffordshire). 



Stourton Castle, in March, by Colonel Fox, called the Tinker, a raid 
upon Colonel Lane's house at Bentley to seize his cattle and sell them in 
Birmingham, and a retaliatory surprise attack of Lane's to plunder Bir- 
mingham which failed. 

On May 22, the fortress at Rushall was captured by a force of 2000 
men under Earl Denbigh, the Parliamentary general, whose father, a Royalist, 
was slain near Birmingham. 

In June, after a siege of three weeks, a great battle was fought outside 
the walls of Dudley Castle, on the 12th, the besiegers encamped at Tipton 
and West Bromwich, but after three hours' fighting they retired to Walsall. 



2!;o HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Colonel Leveson, the Governor of the Castle, then endeavoured to obtain 
possession of Rushall by a bribe to Captain Tuthill of ^2000 and the sur- 
render of prisoners. He was, however, completely outwitted, lost his prisoners 
and a considerable sum of money, and his agent, Francis Pitt, of Wednes 
field, one of his tenants, was hanged. 

At Burton, described as "a town of Clothyers and Maultsters," a barrel 
of powder exploded in the Church. At the request of the townsmen the 
Earl of Essex reluctantly placed a garrison in the town. 

No serious engagement took place in Staffordshire after 1644. During 
the year 1645, however, the king was frequently marching with his army 
through the County. Leaving Oxford with his army about May ist, he 
proceeded through Woodstock, Evesham and Droitwich, took Hawkesley 
House on the nth, and was at Himley on the 15th en route for Chester. 

Among his officers was a Captain Symmonds, who, whilst upon his 
marches, industriously copied monumental inscriptions, made heraldic notes, 
and kept a journal or diary of events. From this valuable record, the 
following notes, commencing May 15, 1645, are extracted: — 

This night the King lay at Himley Hall, in the County of Stafford, where now the Lord 
Ward lives who married the Lady Dudley. An old house, moated. 

Friday, May 16, 164J. The rendezvous was near the King's quarters. Began about four 
of the clock in the morning here. One soldier was hanged for mutmy. 

The prince's head quarter was at Wolverhampton. A handsome towne, one fair church in it. 

The King lay at Bisbury. A private sweet village, where Squire Grosvenor (as they call 
him) lives, which name hath continued here 120 years. Before him lived Bisbury of Bisbury.* 

Saturday, May 77, 164J. His Majestie marched from hence by Tong, in the County of Salop. 
Garrisons in Staffordshire: R. — [Rebels.] Eggleshall Castle, 1644, six myles from Newport 
in Salop. K— [King's.] Lichfield. Col. Bagot, Governor. R. — Stafford, Lewis Chadwick, Governor. 
R. — Russell (Rushall) Hall, A. Taylor, Governor. R. — Mr. Gifford's house at Chillington, 
three miles from Wolverhampton, now slighted by themselves. K. — Dudley Castle, Colonel 
Levison, whose estate and habitation is at Wolverhampton, is Governor. R. — Tamworth Castle, 
four myle from Lychfield. R. — Alveton or Alton Castle, in the parish of Alton, about 40 
or 50 men in it. In the moorelands. R. — Peynsley house near Cheddle, in Lee parish. Mr. 
Draycott ownes it, about 50 men in it. R. — Caverswall house. Mr. Cradock ownes it, about 
50 men in it. Capt. Ashenhurst is Governor, whose father was a Justice of the Peace in 
Derbyshire. 

* PloVs Staffordshire (p. 181) says: "At Byshbury Hall is still preserved a chair called the King's chair, in 
which Charles the Second sat during his concealment in this mansion.'' Charles the Second, however, was not 
concealed at Bushbury, although Colonel Wilmot lay at the house of John Hunibach in the neighbourhood. 



INCIDENTS OF THE WAR. 25 1 



Whilst in Staffordshire, says Lord Clarendon, the King, who was pro- 
ceeding to Chester, was informed by Lord Biron that the city was relieved 
of danger, whereupon the King decided to march upon Leicester. 

Thursday, May 22. We marched from Drayton to Stone. His Majesty lay at Mr. Croniplons 
house, a sweet place in a fine parke. He is a rebel. 

Friday. The army rested. 

Satttrday 24. We marched to Uttoxater. His Majesty lay at Sir Thomas Milward's house 
at Eaton^ in the County of Derby.* 

We marched this day through a parke belonging to the Lord Cromwell, f then by a house 
of Sir Harvey Bagotts in the Morelands, in Staffordshire,^ a woody, enclosed country all the 
way, except the Moors on top of the hills. A black earth where they digg and cut a heathy 
turfe. A rebellious place. Earl of Lichfield, &c., quartered this night at Marston (near Tubury.) 

This day a foot soldier was tyed (with his shoulders and breast naked) to a tree, and 
every carter of the trayne and carriages was to have a lash — for ravishing two women. 

Whit-Sunday, May 2^5, 164S. The army marched to Burton-upon-Trent, the head quarter. 
His Majesty lay at Tutbury Castle. 

We lay at Roulston (RoUeston), a royal house. Monday, 26th, The army rested. Tuesday, 
His Majesty marched to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 

After a furious attack Leicester was stormed and taken on Saturday, the 
31st May. The Royal army then marched through Harborough to Daventry, 
but returning to Leicester was overtaken by the enemy near Harborough, 
when the memorable battle of Naseby was fought and, through the blundering 
of Prince Rupert, was lost ; and notwithstanding the courage of the King, 
was converted into a race for life, pursued by Cromwell until within 
sight of Leicester (16 miles). The King's flight was a sensational one, the 
battle was fought early on Saturday morning. From Leicester to Ashby is 
another 16 miles, yet the King left Ashby for Lichfield at 10 o'clock on 
Sunday morning. 

Sunday, June ij, 164^. His Majesty, about ten of the clock in the morning, left Ashby-de- 
la-Zouch and went to Lichfield that night. He lay in the Close that night. The horse were 
quartered in villages round about, some in the city. Here the King left Col. Bagott's 
reigment of horse. The stout Governor left here wounded in the right arme. 

Monday. His Majesty marched to Wolverhampton. 

Tuesday, To Bewdley. 

Wednesday. We rested. 

* Paid foi peas and oats for the two princes' quarters, May 24, 1645, when the King went through this 
town 5/. \2S. Also to Prince Rupert's cook 5^., and for a hogshead of beer that went to Eaton for his 
Majesty \l. (>s. Sd, — Uttoxetet Chronology. 

t Frodswell. J Bramshall. 



252 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



After a forced march of 80 miles and a day's rest, the King proceeded 
to Hereford, thence to Abergavenny, Raglan, Chepstow, Cardiff, Brecknock 
and Ludlow, reaching Bridgnorth on the 8th August. 

August lOy Sunday, to Lichfield, 24 myle. Monday, rested, Tuesday, to Tudbury. Wednesday.^ 
August ij, to Ashborne. 

As the King left Tutbury Castle he was attacked by a force of the 
enemy 500 strong, with an equal loss to both sides. This was his last visit 
to the Castle, so closely associated with the history of the Stuart family, and 
visited by him on so many occasions. Eight months later, April 20, 1646, the 
Castle fell to Sir William Brereton, and was afterwards reduced to ruin. 

The King proceeded from Ashborne to Welbeck and Doncaster, and again to 
Oxford, thence to Hereford, Chester, Denbigh, and back to Bridgnorth, and again 
for the last time made another rapid march to Lichfield on his way to Newark. 




SWYTHAMLEY PARK. 




H IRopal jfUGitive. 




N the 30th January, 1649, Charles Stuart, King of England, 

expiated the many sins of his father, and some lesser ones 

of his own, on the scaffold. The violent death which he 

was called upon to suffer prepared the way for the 

inevitable reaction, and ensured an easy and indolent reign 

for his easy and indolent son ; but, before that reaction 

was near, the son was destined to pass through wearying and chastening 

troubles, such as had developed in his father the highest characteristics of 

which his nature was capable. 

Born in 1630, Charles the Second was a soldier and an exile at the age 
of fifteen. Four days after his father's execution he was proclaimed king 
at Edinburgh, before he had reached the age of nineteen. Eighteen months 
later he returned to Scotland, and in the following year started south to 
reclaim his kingdom. 

On Wednesday, the 3rd September, 1651, he fought and lost the battle 
of Worcester, and the record of the miraculous escapes and romantic 
adventures of the six weeks following the battle has deservedly become the 



254 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



most popular and romantic historical episode in our language, a story which 
greatly aided its hero in regaining and retaining the crown he was unfitted 
to wear, and which he helped in no small degree to divorce from the line of 
the Stuarts. The battle was valiantly fought, but against great odds, and by six 
o'clock the royal cause was lost, and the King and his officers* were flying for 
Scotland. After a gallop of seventeen miles, under the guidance of a trooper, 
Richard Walker, the party entered Staffordshire at Kinver Heath, Here the 
trooper was at fault. Earl Derby had formerly hidden at Boscobel and White- 
ladies, adjoining the estates of the Giffards of Chillington, twenty miles away ; 
and Charles Giifard being present with his servant Yates, the latter became 
guide. The direct route was by way of Stourton, but the Stourbridge road 
is said to have been taken. A crust of bread and a drink was obtained 
for the King, and before daybreak Whiteladies was reached. 

The ruins of the Cistercian Nunnery of Whiteladies, with its mill adjacent, 
lay on the Shropshire border of the King's Staffordshire park of Brewood. 
Within the wood was another nunnery of the Benedictines, or Black-ladies, 
and midway, on the county boundary, was Boscobel House, occupied by the 
Penderels, a family of yeomen and millers, with their widowed mother, being 
tenants of the Giffards of Chillington. 

Leaving the King at Whiteladies, the rest of the company continued their 
flight, and many were afterwards captured, among others Earl Derby, whose 
head was struck off on the 15th October, at Bolton. 

Various accounts of the King's stay at Boscobel exist, and with the 
exception of a misleading one by the verbose Clarendon, they are mainly 
in accord. Richard, the miller, was abroad early. From Earl Derby and 
Charles Giffard he received his youthful charge, conducted him by a back 
door to Boscobel, and rapidly transformed him into a countryman by cutting 
his hair, staining his face, and exchanging his military garb for some old 
garments. By sunrise he had taken him to the most obscure part of the 
wood, called Rinshaw, or Spring Coppice. Rain coming on, a blanket was 

* George Villiers, the profligate Duke of Buckingham ; James Stanley, Earl of Derby, Latham House ; 
Henry Lord Wilmot, father of the notorious Rochester ; and Lord Talbot were among the King's attendants, 
the party numbering about sixty. 



A ROYAL FUGITIVE. 



25; 



brought from the house of Francis Yates, whose wife (Penderel's sister) 

also brought him food. Here, 
where centuries before, the 
Plantagenet Kings had 
dehghted in the chase, the 
homeless fugitive sought shel- 
ter at the foot of one of the 
royal oaks. Richard Penderel, 
prepared to take any trouble 
or risk, started at nightfall 
with the King to cross the 
Severn at Madeley, eleven 
miles distant. Whatever their 
future plans may have been, 
the attempt failed, and after 
dark the pair trudged back to 
Boscobel. During their absence 
another fugitive. Colonel Carles, 
had arrived, and Penderel rode 
by and proceeded to the house, 
J leaving the King in the wood. 
Finding all safe, however, he 




yas. Gale- 



brought Charles ni to join m 

THE king's hiding PLACE, BOSCOBEL. . . ^ 1 .^f 

the sunple evening meal ot 
the family. William Penderel's wife prepared him a possett of thin milk 
and small beer, and afterwards bathed his feet, wet and worn with travel, 
and dried his boots with hot embers. 

Thus fortified, the King returned into the wood, and spent the night of 
Friday with Carles in a thick-leaved oak, and here (or, according to tradition, 
in a large oak near the house), with his head in Carles's lap, he passed the 
most part of the Saturday in sleep, the Penderels meanwhile pursuing their 
daily avocations. Humphry had to go to Shifnal to pay his taxes to the par- 
liamentary officers, and was severely examined as a suspect, for the fugitives 



2^6 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



were being tracked, but the ordeal was safely passed, and he returned to 
Boscobel. Some chickens were provided by the widow Penderel for supper, 
and afterwards the secret place where the Earl of Derby had formerly 
hidden was shown to the King, who decided to trust to it for the night. 
The subject of Sunday's dinner being broached, the King confessed to a 
preference for mutton. To obtain mutton in any neighbouring market was 
out of the question, so a neighbouring sheep-cote lost a sheep the next 
morning very early. Colonel Carles undertook the role of butcher, and 
despatched it with a dagger, and William carried it home. A leg was 
carried into the parlour, and his sacred majesty cut it into collops and fried 
it himself, the butcher-colonel acting as assistant cook. 

A longer stay, however, became perilous, and a retreat to Moseley, the 
fine old English home of Mr. Thomas Whitgreave, was arranged. Moseley 
is seven miles distant from Boscobel, and some four from Wolverhampton. 
The flight took place at night, when the King, accompanied by the miller, 
upon whose horse he was mounted, by a circuitous route reached the friendly 
asylum. The services of the Penderel family were worthy a king's remem- 
brance, and, to the credit of Charles, he never forgot them. 

Whilst the King was staying at Boscobel, Lord Wilmot had found safety 
at or near Moseley, and also at Colonel Lane's house at Bentley, five or 
six miles away, and within two miles of Walsall. The Lanes, an ancient 
family of Wolverhampton, had owned Bentley more than two centuries. It 
had formed one of the Hays of Cannock Forest, and its park was then 
well stocked vvith deer. The present timber-hidden hall is a venerable and 
interesting mansion, but is a reconstruction of the house of 1651. 

On Monday night Lord Wilmot visited the King at Mr. Whitgreave's 
house, returning to Bentley to mature a scheme for the royal fugitive's 
escape. Here a fortuitous circumstance favoured the King. Colonel Lane's 
sister, Jane Lane, was just about to start to pay a visit to her cousin, 
near Bristol, and had secured a safe conduct pass from Captain Stone, the 
Governor of Stafford, for herself and her servant.* What better chance 

* Lord Wilmot, it is said, was to have enacted the part of the groom, and the pass may have been secured 
with this object. 



A ROYAL FUGITIVE. 



257 



could Charles have than to take the place of a servant, and to accompany 
Mistress Lane, and so ensure a safe journey as far as Bristol, on his way 
to the south coast? Colonel Lane, therefore, rode over to Moseley at 
midnight on Tuesday, and brought back the King to Bentley ere morning 
dawned. Here he was hastily instructed in his part, and, after a short 
retirement for sleep, he was suitably clothed for his part and amply provided 
with means for the journey. He mounted, and with his companion on the 
pillion behind, started away through the lanes and byeways to Great Barr and 
Erdington on that long ride which ended in his escape to France, and 
became memorable in the annals of the Stuarts. 




BENTLEY HALL. {FroJH Plot's Staffordshire) 




VIEW OF WOLVERHAMTON. 
{From an old frint.) 



Z\)z (Bougba of ®lt) jfaUin^e. 




F the numerous English families of opulence and distinction 
originating from successful trading or the pursuit of com- 
merce in the ancient burg towns and cities of the kingdom, 
Wolverhampton may certainly claim more than an average 
number. 

In early times it enrolled among its people the Giffards, 
Wrottesleys, Jennings, and Levesons, subsequently it nurtured the Lanes, 
Goughs, and Turtons, and more recently the Molineaux, Frj-ers, Sparrows, 
Thorneycrofts, and others innumerable. And many stately homes of Stafford- 
shire are those of descendants of men who have added lustre to the past 
history of the Town of Wool and Iron. Of these founders of families 
probably none have become better known than the rich Wolverhampton 
merchant, Henry Gough. It is told, in the geneaological records of English 
families, that the Gough-Calthorpes owe not a little of their advancement 
to an episode which brought this Henry Gough into contact with Charles I. 
in the time of his greatest need. 



THE GOUGHS OK OLD FALLINGS. 259 

When, in October, 1642, King Charles spent Sunday in Wolverhampton, 

Henry Gough, Mercer, Mercator, or Draper, the first owner of Old Fallings, 

descended of a long line of wool staplers, was, if Burke is to be relied 

on, over 80 years of age. He had been thrice married and had several 

grand-children. According to Degge, he was a great usurer, and was so 

rich that, traditionally, he was assailed by the common folk with : — 

" Here's old Justice Gough 
Who has money enough." 

The King was housed by Madam St. Andrew, a near connection or kins- 
man of Gough, who, on his part entertained the two young princes in his 
house.* The good folk of Wolverhampton loyally set about raising a sum 
of money for the King, but to their disgust the rich burgher, of whom 
much was expected, refused all assistance. At eventide, however, the aged 
merchant donned hat and cloak and sought the King, and insisted upon a 
personal interview. When face to face with Charles he drew from beneath 
his cloak a bag of gold, amounting, according to family tradition, to ;^I200, 
and presented it with the pretty speech, " May it please your Majesty to 
accept this, it is all the cash I have by me or would have brought more." 

Tt was a bountiful gift, so bountiful that the King is said to have 
proffered him knighthood, which he refused ; and that Charles II. accorded 
the honour unto his grand-son, as a recognition of the liberal act. 

The loyal merchant died in 1655, and his son, John Gough, in 1665 
(aged 57). In 1664, John was made an esquire by patent, signed William 
Dugdale Norroy. Of his children, Henry and Richard, were both knighted, the 
latter a celebrated East India merchant, purchased Middlemore's Manor of 
Edgbaston ; and his grandson, in 1796, became Baron Calthorpe ; whilst the 
former. Sir Henry, who had sixteen children,! purchased Perry Hall, and a 



* This would fix the year of the incident .as 1642 and not 1645, ^^^ Princes were then aged 12 and 9. 

t Of these children, the 6th son, Harry, born at Perry, in 168 r, went at the age of 11 to China with his 
uncle Richard ; here he obtained the name of Amy IVhan^, or the white-haired boy. In 1717, he purchased 
for ;^i3,6oo the remainder of the Middlemore estates, including ancient burgages in the Bull Ring, an estate at 
Ladywood, and a farm of 25 acres, now marked by Gough Street, all in the neighbouring town of Birmingham, 
and large estates in Warwickshire and Worcestershire. These passed to his only son, Richard Gough, the 
eminent antiquary, of whom Staffordshire has good reason to be proud. This great scholar died in 1809, and 
his widow in 1833. 



26o 



HISTORIC STAFFOKDSHIRE. 



moiety of the manor of Perry, in 1669, the year after his marriage with 
Mary, daughter of Sir Edward Littelton. 

Upon the death of Sir Henry, in 1724, his son Walter, a great traveller 
and a very learned writer, became owner of Perry and Old Fallings,* and, 
in 1730, was succeeded by his son Walter, and he again, in 1773, by his 
son John, the eccentric " Squire Gough," who attained great notoriety by 
his parsimony and churlishness. t 




[Bj' kind permission of J. A. Draycott, Birmingham.\ 
PERRY HALL, 



* His wife, Martha Harwood, a niece of Sir Richard Hill, is said to have been lineally descended from 
Hereward, lord of Bourne (Hereward the Wnke), the son of Leofric and Goiiva. 

tJOf this oddity, Shaw (under "Perry Hall") has recorded, ''Down to the present owner, John Gough, Esq., 
whose well-known liberality and kindness prohibited me giving, by personal inspection, even an external description 
of the old moated mansion. All then that I can say of it is, the situation is flat but richly wooded, and here 
is a small park of deer, the venison of which is mostly sold at an extravagant price, though the owner is 
possessed of about 4000/. per annum. However, as it is beneath the dignity of the historic page to dwell upon 
such facts, I shall draw a veil over the present scene ; but, out of respect to his ancestors and a worthy 
relative, Richard Gough, of Enfi±ld, Esq., the learned editor of "Camden," author of " Sepulchral Monuments," 
&c., shall give a pedigree of the family, under the more ancient seat of Old Fallings." 



THE GOUGHS OF OLD FALLINGS. 



261 



In 1844, on the death, without issue, of John, who succeeded "Squire 
Gough" in 1828, and purchased the other moiety of Perry, the representa- 
tion of this ancient family devolved upon George, Lord Calthorpe ; but 
Perry passed to the Hon. Frederick Gough-Calthorpe, third son of the first 
Baron Calthorpe, upon the succession of whose eldest son to the Barony his 
next brother, Augustus Cholmondeley, became lord of Perry, and upon his 
recent succession to the Calthorpe title and estates, the manor, with the 
ancient moated hall, and with it the prestige of a descent from the 
martial Gochs of the Principality— ancestors of Owen Glendower and the 
brave Sir Matthew Gough, who fought under Talbot, and a goodly line of 
Wolverhampton wool-staplers— has devolved upon his next brother. Captain 
the Hon. John Somerset Gough-Calthorpe. 




KOcK H(J,J:^h.-^, NtAK KINVER EDGE. 




lEarl^ 3ronworF^er6. 

DUD DUDLEY AND FIDDLER FOLEY. 

HEN Charles IL made his memorable midnight ride to 
Bentley, he would, perchance, obtain glimpses of the distant 
sea-coal fires of the watchmen at the pits. The whole 
district which is now ablaze at night with unearthly and 
lurid fires, had then but little changed from the time 
William Camden rode through it and set down in his 
note book: — 

"The south part of Staffordshire hath coles digged out of the earth and mines of iron. 
But whether more for their commoditie or hinderance I leave to the inhabitants who do or 
shall better understand it." 

Meagre as this personal testimony is, it exceeds that of the itinerant 
Leland, who, some 40 years earlier, wrote " there are secoles at Weddesburie^ 
a village near Walsall," also "At Wallesaul be pittes of secole."* Of 

* In 40 Elizabeth, 1597, three acres of land at Bloxwiche, near Hobbe Hey brooke, were granted to George 
Whithall, gent., conditionally that he should "serve all the inhabitants of Walsall with coals called ' dassell 
coalles," at the rate of 3d. for each horse, mare or geldinge load, and with others called ' bagge coalles ' at 
2d. per like load.'' — Walsall Calendar. 



EARLY IRONWORKERS. 263 



Birmingham, however, he wrote " A great part of the towne is maintained 
by smithes, who have their iron and sea-cole out of Staffordshire^ 

However probable, not to say assured, it may be that the mineral 
treasures of this district were known to the Saxon or even the Roman 
inhabitants,* yet authentic records of mining operations only extend back 
some three centuries previous to the visits of Leland and Camden. These 
records, however, with the survivals of the old workings or delves, chiefly 
in the vicinity of Wednesbury, where the sea coal lay near the surface, 
indicate where, in pre-Norman times, the minerals were worked. t But at 
the Conquest, as is shown in Domesday, the district was thickly wooded, 
it follows therefore that iron making was then a very limited industry, and 
for local requirements only. 

Until quite recent times iron ore could only be smelted with charked or 
burnt wood, the real and original coal of our ancestors. Thus the reckless 
but unavoidable waste of our woods was gradually increasing for centuries, 
until ultimately large tracts of forest were entirely denuded of their wood- 
lands,t and the ore had gradually to be taken to a greater distance from 
the pits, as being less costly than bringing thither the supply of wood for 
its conversion. As a natural result, the price of iron was lower at the 
distant forges, and consequently naylors and small ironworkers multiplied in 
villages remote from the pits, to the great disadvantage of the pit districts, 
or, as Camden suggests, to their hindrance. 

A further result of this had been that the more expert workers in iron, 
the smiths, cutlers and lorymers settled in the surrounding towns, and in 
Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton, and Dudley, the local industries of 

* Roman tools have been found in the ironstone workings, and iron it is known was smelted by the Romans 
at Worcester, but the ore would be brought from Coalbrookdale. Iron was smelted at Uttoxeter in the ijth 
century (possibly a survival of a very early furnace), also at Cannock Forest in 1588, and in 1560, a decayed 
forge with a chaffery, but not a furnace, existed at Little Aston ; it belonged to Roger Fowke, probably the 
father of Dud Dudley's partner, friend and neighbour, Roger Fowke. In 1600, it was let to Thomas Parkes of 
Wednesbury, who entirely reconstructed the buildings and the mill dam. That a furnace was afterwards added 
is evident, for, in 1681, it was carried on by Philip Foley, it is needless to say for making charcoal iron. 

t Allusions were made in the years 1272 and 1290 to pits of sea coal and iron mines in Lord Dudley's 
Manor of Sedgley, and about the same date to the mines of sea coal and iron in the Manor of Walsall and 
in 13 r 5 to the coa! pits of Wednesbury. 

X The will of Edward Lord Dudley, the possessor of extensive Woodlands to the west of Dudley -dated 15S5, 
contains the following — " Item, I wyll and bequeathe my hoole yron workes with all my owre fytt for to 
jnanteyne the same, and alsoe all my woddes and under woodes for the thoroughe mainteyninge of the same." 



264 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



tanning, spinning, and wool working were being gradually superseded by 
the more lucrative working of iron. 

In Elizabeth's reign the water-povver blast was introduced, and capitalists 
were attracted by the profits to be made from the purchase of extensive 
woods ; thenceforth iron making was carried on at ever increasing distances 
from the pits. Formerly, as Dud Dudley tells us, by the old foot treadles, 
one furnace produced but 100 lbs. of iron per day ; the output was now 
increased according to the power available. The effect upon the woodlands 
was soon felt. In the making of every ton of iron three loads of charcoal, 
the product of six loads of wood were consumed, and Acts of Parliament 
became necessary to limit the destruction of woods. 

But the destruction went on. Substantial iron works set up near a run- 
ning stream, with extensive woods at hand, took the place of the humble 
contrivances of the past, and the iron trade passed into the hands of wealthy 
men. The river Tame was speedily utilized, and two or three furnaces and 
forges were set up along its course,* sometimes by the conversion of an 
existing grist mill, sometimes by adapting a part of one. At Wyrley's Mill, 
Holford, Perry Barr, a furnace or iron work was started by Thomas Foley, 
Esquire^ and the ironstone was conveyed there from the pits along pretty 
country lanes. In 1654, it was discarded and re-let as a blade mill. 
Nearer still to Birmingham, Aston furnace was started upon a diversion of 
Hockley Brook, by John Jennens, and became a stepping stone in acquiring 
the almost fabulous wealth for which the Jennens' family, descendants of a 
Birmingham innkeeper, became famous.t 

In addition to the Dudleys, Levesons, Foleys, and Foulkes, the notes of 
Simon Degge state that the Chetwynds of Rugeley, Parkes of Willings- 
worth and Wednesbury, and Gorings of Bold, obtained their estates from 



* At Bescote, oh the site of the present sewage farm, a bloomery or furnace was long held by the Leveson's 
of Wolverhampton. 

t The slag, or waste cinder, from Aston Furnace was thrown out upon a high sand bank, and William Hutton, 
the Birmingham historian, built up a theory that this mountain of cinder was the growth of two or three 
thousand years— the accumulated residue of Wednesbury pit, or sea coal. It is remarkable that Hutton was 
unaware of the fact that iron could not be smelted by pit coal. In 1651, John Jennens, by will, left Aston Furnace 
to his sons, with 100 loades of charcole and 30 tons of rough pigge iron. The furnace was afterwards converted 
to a wire mill. 



EARLY IRONWORKERS. 265 



iron works ; that Mr. Parkes' grandfather carried nails on his back, and 
that Richard Foley was first a seller of nails. 

The connection of the Foleys with the iron trade is one of considerable 
interest. Richard Foley, the son of a Dudley nail-maker, born in 1580, 
settled near Stourbridge, and amassed considerable wealth. He married the 
daughter of William Brindley, of the Hyde, Kinver, a man famed in the 
local story as introducing the German method of making iron to Kinver 
mill, the first erected in England for rolling and slitting iron.* 

Brindley's son-in-law, Richard Foley, also undertook a journey into Sweden, 
at great risk, in order further to perfect the methods of manufacture. 
Coleridge tells the story of this enterprise of Foley's in his "Table Talk," as 
the best attested instance of enthusiasm existing.! And it is also repeated 
by Smiles in "Self Help," and in the "Dictionary of National Biography." It 
is probable that after Brindley had learnt the German methods, it was 
found that more desirable knowledge could be obtained from Sweden.! 

By the industry, skill, and enterprise of Richard Foley, and his son 
Thomas, extensive works were set up in far distant places, great wealth 
accumulated, and early in the next century the Foleys were enrolled among 
the Barons of England. 

The credit of first discovering a method, where others had failed, of smelting 
iron with pit or sea coal, and discarding chark'd wood coal, must un- 
doubtedly be given to Dud Dudley, a natural son of the Lord Dudley who 
acquired the Dudley ironworks in 1585. The following particulars of the 

* According to this well-known story, Brindley, in his zeal to improve his trade, travelled into Germany, 
affected the character of a harmless, half-witted wanderer, and rambled among the ironworks. His oddities and 
eccentricities ensuring him a general goodwill. But, with watchful eye, he gained the knowledge he required, 
which, on his return home, he applied to the improvement of his works. 

t Samuel Taylor Coleridge may have picked up this story in his visits to members of the Lloyd family, 
themselves engaged in the trade, and having opportunities of ascertaining its reliability. 

{ Richard Foley, in his work as a nail maker, it is said, observing the great labour and loss of time in- 
volved by the method then in use for dividing the rods of iron used in his trade, and the evils arising from 
the competition of the Swedish iron workers, resolved to journey to Sweden and acquire the secret of superiority. 
He set forth in the guise of a strolling musician, and with his fiddle under his arm, he journeyed on foot until 
be reached the mines of Dannemora, near Upsula. Here his skill as a musician and his natural geniality 
gained him a ready welcome from the ironworkers among whom he lingered. When he had, as he thought, 
attained the knowledge required he hastened home and obtained funds for the erection of the necessary 
machinery and buildings for slitting iron by the Swedish process. When, however, completed and set to work 
he found to his mortification that he had not completely mastered the necessary details.. He thereupon again 
disappeared and once more visited the ironworks of Dannemora and returned triumphant, having discovered the 
cause of his previous failure. 



266 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



remarkable but unfortunate Dud Dudley are condensed from his work, the 
"Metallum Martis." 

Born in 1599, as a youth he took great delight in his father's ironworks, and at the age 
of twenty was fetched from college at Oxford to manage one furnace and two forges at Pensnet. 
But wood and charcoal growing then scant, and pit coal abounding,* he was led to alter 
the furnace, and obtain a blast from pit coal, and, animated by the result, made a second trial, 
when the quality of the iron proved good, although the quantity small. He thereupon wrote 
to Lord Dudley in London to obtain a patent from the King and received the following 
reply : — 

" Son Dudley, 

" The King's Majesty being at New-Matket^ I sent Parker thither on Saturday to 
some friends of mine, to move the King's Majesty for my pattent, which be coming on the 
Sunday morning. In the afternoon His Majesty sent a warrant to Master Atturney to despatch 
my pattent .... I have been this night with Master Atturney, who will make hast for 
me. God bless you, and commend me unto all my friends. Your loving Father, 

" EDWARD DUDLEY." 
"March 10, 1619 (1620)." 

A year later this same Parkes (Richard Parkes of Willingsworth, brother-in-law to Dud 
Dudley) carried some pit coal iron to the Tower, by the King's command, to be tried, and he 
there had a fowling gun made from it, which was afterwards taken from him by Colonel 
Levison, Governor of Dudley Castle, and never restored. 

The next year all the works were damaged in a great May day storm flood, and as soon 
as these were repaired, rival ironmasters prevailed with the King to give his product very 
severe tests, which, when applied, Dudley claimed that they silenced opposition. Then, as 
Parliament had annulled monopolies, his rivals alleged Dudley's patent was a monopoly and 
got it restricted to 14 years. Dud Dudley now claimed to have produced and sold annually 
great store of good and merchantable iron. The rest of the story is not so clear. Having erected 
new furnaces and extensive works, he " was by force thrown out of them and the Bellows of 
his new Furnace and Invention by riotous persons cut to pieces." He was also wearied with 
law suits, riots, and wrongful imprisonments for several thousand pounds, until his patent 
expired. t 

In 1638 he had a renewed patent from Charles 1st, but the Civil War put an end to his 
hopes. He was an ardent Royalist, and found little favour from his enemies. Other patents 



* The following were reasons given by Dud Dudley for dispensing with the use of charcoal : — " Within 10 miles 
of Dudley, near 2000 smiths and many ironworks be decayed for want of wood (yet formerly a mighty wood- 
land country). Lord Dudley's woods and works decayed ; pit coal and ironstone abounding, but of liu'e use. 
The coal mines are 10, 11, and 12 yards thick, and the uppermost coal gotten in open works." And elsewhere 
he states that "the trade of 20,000 smiths or naylors is so bad that many of them are ready to starve or steal." 

t These pecuniary difficulties were doubtless due to the impecuniosity of his father, a man, of all the Sutton 
Dudleys, the most worthless. His estate, long in the hands of a receiver, had now entirely gone from him, 
and he was overwhelmed with debts. 



EARLY IRONWORKERS. 



267 



were granted to numerous inventors, and Dudley was most persevering, but the measure of 
their success must be gauged by Dudley's admission that whilst his greatest production was 
one ton, the new furnaces with Charcoal produced two or three tons in 24 hours, and smeltin«y 
with pit coal was never successfully achieved until the introduction of the steam engine. 

What has been said as to the making of charcoal iron in the south 
applies also to all other parts of the county, interesting survivals of furnaces 
and forges yet exist in the wooded districts of the Churnet and the 
Dane. 







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ANCIENT BRIDGE AT PERRY. 



33aak IPtHalton anb Charles Cotton. 




HAT a book which treats of a branch of sport should have 
become a classic, occupying a place of honour in the 
national literature, betokens in its author a mastery of 
much else beside the craft of which he writes, and this 
is undoubtedly true of "The Compleat Angler" and its 
author, " honest old Izaak Walton," whose intimate con- 
nection with the county of Stafford is one of its glories. The author of 
this fascinating book reveals in its pages a simple yet beautiful character, 
and the possession of a wide range of learning, and that rare literary art 
in which the art itself is deftly concealed. 

" Here sits, in secret, blest Theology, 
Waited upon by grave Philosophy, 
Both natural and moral : History, 
Deck'd and adorn'd with flowers of Poetry, 
The matter and expression striving which 
Shall most excel in worth, yet not seem rich." * 

When, in 1593, Izaak Walton first saw the light, Stafford, with its grand old 
church and its narrow streets of half-timbered houses, was closely hemmed in 
with surrounding walls and gates. He was born on the 9th of August, 
and baptized 21st September. His father, Jervis Walton, is supposed to be 
a son of George Walton of Yoxall, one of the outlying villages of Need- 
wood Forest. Lying between the river of Trent, the glory of the shire 
and the delight of the fisherman, and the pretty stream of Sherbourn, and 



Christopher Harvey : " To the Reader of ' The Complete AnKler.' " 



IZAAK WALTON AND CHARLES COTTON. 



269 



some three miles from Alrewas, Yoxall is the ideal place, as the origin of 
our great angler's family, and the name of Walton is found in the district 
for some centuries previously. 

George Walton's will, made in 1571, describes him as "late Baylie of 
Yoxall,"* and this is all that is known of him. When Izaak was years 
old, in 1597, his father died and was buried at St. Mary's, Stafford. Of his 
circumstances, nothing is known. Young Walton's education would therefore 
be limited to at most a few years in the grammar school, which then stood 
in St. Mary's churchyard. 




STAFFORD CHURCH. 



Tn the waters of the Sow, Shallowford, the little Penk, and its other 
tributaries, with perhaps an occasional walk of four miles to where it joins 
the greater Trent at Shugborough, young Walton would take his first 



* The will of George Walton was proved by his widow, 7th April, 157 1, and is in the Bishop's Registry of 
Lichfield; in it "Jervis Walton" is mentioned as one of his sons. 



270 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



lessons in that delightful pursuit of which he was destined to become the 
laureate, but these opportunities were of brief duration. Before he was 
fourteen he must have been sent to London and apprenticed to a Haber- 
dasher, Milliner, or Draper.* 

Sometime prior to 1624, Walton set up in business as a Milliner and 
Draper, in Fleet Street, and was tenant of one-half of a house in the very 
quaint and ancient block at the west corner of Chancery Lane, near to 
St. Dunstan's Church, of which his friend, Dr. Donne, was then vicar. 
Through this friendship Walton's acquaintance with Dr. King, Bishop of 
London, and Sir Henry Wotton and other eminent Churchmen, probably 
originated. 

In spite of circumstances which bound him to the haberdasher's 
counter, Izaak Walton seems to have nourished a love of literature at an 
early age, for at the time he was twenty a small poem entitled " The 
Love of Amos and Laura," by S. P., was published, with a poetical 
dedication "To my approved and much respected friend, Iz. Wa.," from 
which it appears that the little book was published on Walton's recom- 
mendation. Walton's first serious contribution to literature arose out of his 
intimacy with the circle of friends referred to above, for sometime after the 
death of Donne, Sir Henry Wotton purposed writing a biography of the 
deceased divine, to be prefixed to a volume of Donne's sermons, but aban- 
doned the project, and the task devolved on Walton, the work being 
published in 1640. His fondness for penning epistolary and dedicatory 
verses is evinced by the many productions of this character from his pen 
which are to be found in the prolegomena of various books of that period. 
From some of these we gather evidence of his growing affection for the 
rod and line, as in the " address to the reader " prefixed to Quarles' 
"Shepherd's Eclogues" (1646) which is with good reason attributed to 
Walton, in which we read of the gentle shepherd " walking a gentle pace 

* Sir Harris Nicholas, the biographer of Walton, suggests that one Henry Walton, a Haberdasher, of White- 
chapel, London, was at once Uncle and Master to Izaak, a suggestion so far as the relationship goes most 
probable, but another statement made upon some show of authority is that he was apprenticed to one Holmes, 
a Sempter, with whom he stayed until 22 or 23 years of age, in which case he would be 15 or 16 when 
apprenticed. 



iF^^nr 





ON THE MANIFOLD. 



272 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



towards a brook fitted with angle, lines, and flies . . . 

intending all diligence to beguile the timorous trout." Probably at the 
time Walton penned these lines the charm of his fishing excursions had 
become enhanced by their being taken alongside the beautiful streams of 
his native county ; for, soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, according 
to Anthony A'Wood, finding it "dangerous for honest men" to remain in 
London, " he left that city, and lived sometimes at Stafford and elsewhere, 
but mostly in the families of the eminent clergymen of England, by whom 
he was much beloved."* 

Perhaps it is not too much to say that it is to Walton's enforced sojourn 
in his native county that we owe the production of his most famous book 
— the one by which he will be longest remembered. Certain it is that its 
publication followed speedily upon that period of retirement, being published 
in 1653, and dedicated "to his most honoured friend," John Ofllley of 
Madely Manor in Staffordshire, himself no mean angler. We may therefore, 
without hesitancy, regard " The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's 
Recreation," as having, to a certain extent, been inspired by the angling 
rambles which Walton took, in the company of his brother of the angle, 
along the various Staffordshire streams — such as the Sow, the Trent, the 
Manifold, and other streams with which the county abounds. More parti- 
cularly would he find pleasure and food for contemplation in the lovely 
and romantic valley of the Dove, " the pleasantness of which river," Walton 
wrote, " and of the mountains and meadows about it, cannot be described, 
unless Sir Philip Sydney, or Mr. Cotton's father, were again alive to do it." 
Sometimes he would be accompanied on these enterprises, perchance, by 
another friend. Master Edward Powell, " of the Borough of Stafford, 
Minister," who wrote a poetical eulogium on his " most ingenious friend's 

* After the battle of Worcester, when the cause of the Stuarts had collapsed for the time, Walton's loyalty 
caused him to be entrusted with a delicate and difficult commission. Although the greater portion of the 
valuables belonging to the King had fallen into Cromwell's hands, the King's lesser George wa.% preserved by 
Colonel Blague, who, according to Sir Harris Nicholas, having taken shelter at Blore Pipe House, two miles 
from Eccleshall, then the residence of Mr. George Barlow, delivered the jewel into that gentleman's custody. 
In the ensuing week Mr. Barlow carried it to Robert Milward, Esq., who was at that time a prisoner in the 
garrison of Stafford, and Milward afterwards gave it into "the trusty hands" of Mr. Izaak Walton to convey 
to Colonel Blague, who was confined by the Parliament in the Tower of London." Blague, it is said, after- 
wards managed to escape from the Tower, and restored the George to its Royal owner. 



IZAAK WALTON AND CHARLES COTTON. 



273 



book, ' The Compleat Angler,' " which appears among the prolegomena of the 
book. 

The most notable companion of Walton's on these fishing expeditions, 
however, was Charles Cotton of Beresford Hall— a fine old mansion, which 




THE STRAITS, DOVEDALE. 



overlooked the Dove in its upper reaches in Beresford Dale. The friendship 
between Walton and Cotton seems, from a stanza in Cotton's commendatory 
verses on Walton's "Life of Dr. Donne," to have risen in the first place 
from a friendship with Cotton's father, while Cotton himself styles Walton 



274 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



" the best friend I ever knew." With him Walton must have explored 
most of the waters of his native county. The Trent, " one of the finest 
rivers in the world, and the most abounding with excellent trout, and all 
sorts of delicate fish " — to quote Cotton's eulogium of this river, — would 
claim the first place, perhaps, to the attentions of such a pair of enthusiastic 
fishermen. Walton's inquiring mind, so fond of reasoning out and seeking 




BED OF THE MANIFOLD (SUMMER). 



explanations of curious phenomena, would doubtless also lead him to explore 
again and again the Manifold, which for many miles buries itself and 
becomes a subterranean stream. The picturesque beauties, too, of this river, 
as well as of the Hamps and, most of all, the Dove, would awaken in the 



IZAAK WALTON AND CHARLES COTTON. 275 



grand old nature -lover feelings of intense admiration and pride — pride that 
such river scenery should be found in his native county. We can 
imagine the two enthusiastic anglers spending many happy hours in 
the exquisitely beautiful and awe-inspiring " Straits of the Dove," seeking 
to beguile the wary trout with which this part of the stream abounds, 
or scaling together the steep ascent to Reynard's Cave, or standing with 
wondering admiration before such mighty monoliths as that called Ham 
Rock, or the Pickering Tor. 

Nor would the lower reaches of the Dove claim all their attention. The 
stern and naked cliffs which border the stream for several miles, between 
Milldale and Beresford Dale, would be visited and explored from Cotton's 
hospitable mansion. Here the vegetation which clothes the lower reaches 
is wanting, and for miles the bare crags and screes, all grey, purple, and 
yellow, crop out from the green hillside, affording rich varieties and 
contrasts of colour, while the bed of the stream is strewn with boulders. 
The long ravine called Narrowdale forms part of this rocky valley, and 
here, says the gossiping Plot, " the inhabitants, for that quarter of the year 
wherein the sun is nearest the tropic of Capricorn, never see it [i.e. the 
sun] at all ; and at length, when it does begin to appear again, they 
never see it till about one by the clock, which they call thereabout the 
Narrowdale noon ; using it proverbially when they would express a thin<y 
done late at noon." Whether there were any " inhabitants " at the time 
Walton and Cotton traversed this valley is doubtful, as the long stretch of 
valley from Milldale to Beresford Dale is now a wilderness and a solitary 
place, with no signs of life save of the cattle in the stream, and the 
birds on the hillsides, which here are precipitous, their tops seeming 
crowned with castles and turrets, from the fantastic shapes assumed by 
crag and cliff. 

Thinking that the " Compleat Angler " was defective in one branch of 
the subject, Walton applied to Cotton to furnish him with a treatise on the 
" Art of Fly Fishing." This request was neglected for some time, but 
when, in 1676, the author had a new edition of the work in the press, 
he reminded Cotton of his request, with the result that the second part of 



276 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



the "Angler" was written by Cotton in little over ten days. In it he 

assumes the character of Piscator, which in the first part was assumed by 

Walton, and he takes occasion, in this character, to pronounce a eulogy 

on his friend and on the " Compleat Angler," to Venator (a character 

which is continued from the first into the second part) saying : — 

" My opinion of Mr. Walton's book is the same with every man's that understands the art 
of angling, that it is an excellent good one ; and that the fore-mentioned gentleman under- 
stands as much of fish and fishing as any man living. But I must tell you, further, that I 
have the happiness to know his person, and to be intimately acquainted with him ; and in him 
to know the worthiest man, and to enjoy the best and truest friend that any man ever had." 

In further testimony of his affection for Walton, Cotton had, not long 
before, built a little fishing-house on the Staffordshire side of the banks of 
the Dove, near to Beresford Hall, and in commemoration of their friend- 
ship he had caused a stone to be placed in the centre of the building, on 
which was carved the quaint monogram which has become famous, in which 
his own and Walton's initials are combined. This monogram was engraved 
as a vignette for the title of Cotton's contribution to the "Angler." 

In this second part. Cotton gives a good description of Dove Dale and 
its wonders, and of many things in this part of Staffordshire. He makes 
Viator say, on approaching Dove Dale, "Bless me! What mountains are 
here! are we not in Wales?" To which the delighted dalesman replies, 
" No, but ill almost as mountainous a country ; and yet these hills, though 
high, bleak, and craggy, breed and feed good beef and mutton above ground, 
and afford good lead within." The stranger expresses surprise at the " Alps " 
he is called upon to cross, and suggests that he will sit down and write 
his travels, so impressed is he by the wonders and picturesque beauties of 
Dove Dale. He is surprised at the sight of Alstonfield Church, thinking 
he had gone " a stage or two beyond Christendom " in this wild and 
picturesque region. 

But, Piscatnr has another surprise in store for him. As he reaches the 

lovely Beresford Dale, where the Dove flows more smoothly and the scenery 

becomes pastoral. Viator exclaims : — 

" But what have we got here ? A rock springing up in the middle of the river ! This is 
one of the oddest sights I ever saw. Piscator: Why, Sir, from that Pike, that you see standing 



IZAAK WALTON AND CHARLES COTTON. 



277 



up there distant from the rock, this is called Pike Pool, and young Mr. Izaak Walton* was 

so pleased with it as to draw it in landscape, in black and white, in a blank book I have at 

home, as he has done several prospects of my house also, which I keep for a memorial of 
his favour, and will show you when we come up to dinner." 




PIKE POOL, BERESFORD DALE. 

Of the various poetical works of Cotton, as well as of the worthy and 
lasting work of Walton, in his " Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, Herbert, 
and Sanderson," it is scarcely necessary to speak here. One or two matters 
of StaflFordshire interest, however, in relation to the latter may be mentioned. 
A copy of the " Lives " was given by Walton to Walter, Lord Aston, 
which is preserved in the library at Tixall. It bears the inscription, "For 
my Lord Aston. Iz. Wa.," underneath which Lord Aston wrote : 

* Son of the Author of the " Compleat Angler." 



278 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



" Izake Walton gift to me, June y 14, 1670, wch I most thankfully for his memmory off mee 
acknowledge a greate kindnesse. — Walter Aston." 

The second separate edition of the " Life of Dr. Donne " was dedicated 
by Walton, " to my noble and honoured friend, Sir Robert Holt of Aston, 
in the county of Warwick, Bart ," whose fair estate at Aston adjoins the 
boundary of the county of Stafford on the one side. Sir Robert Holte 
was the grandson of John King, Bishop of London, his father, Edward 
Holte, having married that prelate's daughter, — for which act he suffered 
the severe displeasure of his father,* and a life-long banishment from Aston 
Hall. Bishop Henry King of Chichester, a pleasant versifier, whose friend- 
ship Walton enjoyed, was Sir Robert Holte's uncle, hence the friendship of 
Walton for the young baronet of Aston. 

Izaak Walton was twice married. His first wife was Rachel Floud, whose 
family was allied to that of the Cranmers, the descendants of the martyred 
archbishop. This marriage took place in St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, 
hard by Walton's place of business, on the 27th December, 1626. Four- 
teen years later she died, and, in 1646, Walton married Anne, the daughter 
of Thomas Ken, an Attorney, of the Somersetshire family of Ken, to which 
the famous bishop belonged. It is said that a line in one of the songs in 
the "Angler" originally bore a reference to Walton's first wife, and was 
afterwards altered to suit the second ; the Chlora of the first version (an 
anagram on the name " Rachel," with one vowel altered) being subsequently 
changed to the name Kenna^ in reference to his second wife's family name, 
a circumstance which, Sir Harris Nicolas says, "* unfortunately brings to 
recollection the story of a man who had a picture painted of his first wife, 
and marrying again after her decease, desired the artist to erase the face 
from the canvas, and to introduce the features of his new partner." 

In the evening of his life the love of his early home became manifest. 
In his prosperity he had purchased a farm of 50 acres at Shallowford, near 
his native town, and in his verses, entitled " The Angler's Wish," his 
thoughts turned to this spot, expressing the wish that he might 
" Loiter long days near Shawford Brook." 

* §ir Thoinas Holte, the first baronet, who built Aston Hall. 



IZAAK WALTON AND CHARLES COTTON. 



279 



This property, at his death, was bequeathed for charitable uses to his 
native town ; but he had previously made a gift of 900 yards of land to 
the poor of Stafford. 

Walton died at the house of his son-in-law, Dr. Hawkins, at Winchester, 
on the 15th of December, 1683, during a severe frost which hastened his end. 
One son— the Isaac Walton, jun., referred to by Cotton — and one daughter, 
Anne, the wife of Dr. Hawkins, survived him. He was buried in Winchester 
Cathedral, in a chapel in the south aisle, called Prior Silkstead's Chapel. A 
large black marble slab covers his remains. His memory is also kept green 
in his native county. Recently the townsfolk of Stafford have erected a 
beautiful and appropriate tablet in St. Mary's Church, in honour and 
memory of their great townsman ; and anglers, whose pursuits take them 
to the favourite stream of the famous brothers of the angle, are reminded 
of the laureate of the gentle craft, by the name of the " Izaak Walton " 
Hotel, which stands at the entrance to Dove Dale. 





^■^ 


. V «;;^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^fl^^^ • '■' 4 M* -'"'^ ^ ' 







THE " IZAAK WALTON " HOTEL, DOVE DALE. 



faitb anb jfreebom. 




PON Wednesday^ the ijth of August^ i^lQi ^^ the Assizes 
held at Stafford for the said county^ Andrew Bromwich, of 
Perry Barr, and William Atkins, of Wolverhampton, being 
both Seminary Priests^ ivere brought to their Tryal and 
Convicted before the Right Honourable Sir William Scroggs, 
Knight^ Lord Chief Justice of England, and one of his 
Majesties^ Justices of Assize therey Such is the folio report of "The Tryal 
of William Bromwich, printed by the sole authority of William Scroggs by 
Robert Pawlett, at the Bible in Chancery Lane, 1679." 

Judge Scroggs had charged the Sheriff to " returne a good jury." One 
Allen, however, had been heard to say " Nothing was done against the 
priests above and he would do nothing against them here ;" he was there- 
fore discharged the jury and committed to prison. Three more were 
discharged upon suspicion of being popishly affected, and, when twelve safe 
men had been sworn, one Ann Robinson, a Catholic, but now converted, 
was called ani testified that Bromwich had, at Christmas previously, 
administered the sacrament, at Perry Barr, to her and seven or eight others, 
twice at Mr. Birch's and twice at Mr. Purcell's. Two other Robinsons, 
who had not been converted from their faith, were " bullied " by the judge 
into making corroborative admissions, and the jury were thus charged by 
the judge, "You had better be rid of one priest than three felons," and 
having duly found the prisoner guilty of high treason, were told "You 
have found a good verdict, and if I had been one of you I should have 
found the same myself." 



FAITH AND FREEDOM. 



281 



By the same jury, and upon similar evidence, William Atkins was found 
guilty of the like practices at Mr. Stamford's at Wolverhampton, also at 
Well Head at Ham. 

Both prisoners were sentenced " That you be drawn upon hurdles to 
execution, to be hanged by the neck, cut down alive and mutilated, your 
bowels taken out and burnt in your view, your heads severed from your 
bodies, your bodies be divided into quarters and disposed of at the King's 
pleasure. And the God of infinite mercy be merciful to your souls." 










THE OLD COLLEGE, OSCOTT. 
Front " The Oscotian." 



The Rev. Andrew Bromwich, although born at Longnor, was resident at 
Perry Barr and Oscott, lordships belonging to Catholic familes, the Wyrleys, 
Birchs, Stamfords, and Goughs. The Well-head and Ham would appear to 
be near Wolverhampton, but there are ancient holdings bearing these names 
in Perry and Hamstead. Bromwich was reprieved, and ultimately set at 
liberty, (probably in 1685, on the accession of James II.) when he returned 
to his ministrations. He was the founder and priest of the mission at Old 
Oscott, and died there in 1702, having willed his property for Church uses. 



282 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Andrew Bromwich may thus be looked upon as the originator of that 
religious community which has developed into the great Catholic seminary 
of St. Mary of Oscott.* Among the treasured possessions of the college is 
the chair of Andrew Bromwich, thus described : — 

This chair belonged to the Rev. Andrew Bromwich, the founder of the mission at Old 
Oscott. He was tried and condemned to death by Lord Chief Justice Scroggs, in 1679, for 
being a Catholic priest. He was, however, afterwards reprieved, and after lying some time in 
prison, his release seems to have been connived at as he died at Old Oscott in 1702. 

The new college, which stands on the elevated plateau overlooking the 
valley of the Tame, is, as it were, a beacon of religious liberty, eminently 
typical of the great change which has taken place since Andrew Bromwich 
ministered to the people of Oscott and Perry. At the latter place, an 
ancient house called "Well Head," belonging to a Catholic Trust, still stands. 
It has the reputation of having been formerly used as a masshouse, and 
may possibly have been the scene of the administration of those rites which 
so disturbed Judge Scroggs. In Perry village, too, a few ancient cottages 
survive, a new church has risen and the old ford has gone, but there is 
nothing to indicate the larger population of Perry in the days of the second 
Charles. Yet in the years 1678-80 no fewer than thirty-seven men and 
women, nailers, weavers, blacksmiths, milners, husbandmen, and labourers were 
certified into the Exchequer as popish recusants, and they had the alternative 
of abjuring or being persecuted. At the head of this list stands the name 
of " Andreas Bromwich, gen^'^ a man whom the terrors of hanging and 
quartering failed to change, and who recanted not the faith he held. Such 
a man to-day is honoured, and the noble college he originated is a lasting 
memorial to his worth. 



* Andrew Bromwich was possibly a member of the somewhat numerous family of the name at Erdington, and 
was also connected with the Dorringtons of Gaylon, Dunston near Penktidge Colon, and Stafford, where the 
ancient hi?h house was built in 155-, by Richard Dorrington. The last of the family was Juliana Dorrington 
of the old mission at Oscott. She w\s a benefactor to that church and died there, 1730. In 1702, a Mary 
Dorrington witnessed the will of Bromwich, at Old Oscott. 



Zbc 1Ri0e anb jfall of a jfamoue ChanceUor. 




HE story of the remarkable career of the son of an obscure 
Staffordshire lawyer, who rose to the Woolsack, and, after 
a notable career, " was precipitated with disgrace from the 
highest station a subject can hold in this kingdom," is 
one full of interest, but it can only be briefly touched 
upon in these pages. 
Thomas Parker, afterwards Earl of Macclesfield, was born at Leek, on 
the 23rd of July, 1666, the son of an attorney in that town, who after- 
wards moved to Newcastle, in the same county, his mother being the 
daughter of Colonel Venables, of a respectable Cheshire family. Oliver 
Heywood, one of the ejected Nonconforming ministers, records in his 
diary (1666) that Mrs. Parker had married against her father's consent, 
and implies that the marriage had brought trouble to the young wife. 

Young Tom Parker was sent to the Free Grammar School in the 
neighbouring town of Newport, in Shropshire, and he and a youth named 
Tom Withers (who was afterwards a shoemaker), were reputed to be the 
two cleverest boys in the school. Leaving school, he became articled as a 
clerk to become an attorney. In the middle of his apprenticeship he was 
entered at the Inner Temple, being ambitious of being called to the Bar, 
and subsequently entered at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was called to 
the Bar in 1691, attended the Midland Circuit, and soon won fame as 
" the silver-tongued counsel." Lord Campbell repeats the old story that, 
before being called to the Bar, he had been placed on the roll of attorneys, 



284 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



and practised as an attorney in Derby for some time ; and he imagines 
that, "struck with immense awe at beholding the judges in their scarlet 
robes," and impressed with the idea that he could have done better than 
the barristers to whom he had entrusted briefs, he resolved to become a 
member of " the superior grade of the profession." All this, however, must 




H^. H. Home, 



Leek. 



BIRTHPLACE OF LORD MACCLESFIELD, AT LEEK. 



be regarded as apocryphal, more particularly in the light of the fact that 
he had become a student at the Inner Temple at the age of eighteen. 

Parker was returned to Parliament for Derby in 1705, in the Whig 
interest, and was elected a Bencher of the Inner Temple about the same 
time. Soon afterwards he was raised to the order of the quoif, as 
one of the Queen's Serjeants, and was knighted at Windsor Castle, 
July 9th, 1705. In 1710 he distinguished himself above all others in the 



THE RISE AND FALL OF A FAMOUS CHANCELLOR. 285 



impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell,* and, according to Burnet, " did copiously 
justify both the Revolution and the present Administration." The Lord 
Chief Justice Holt died during the proceedings against the famous Dr. 
Sacheverell, and Parker was instantly appointed to succeed him. For 
eight years he held this high office with credit and impartiality, although 
often barked and snarled at by the Tory wits, and even by Defoe. Soon 
after his appointment, upon a change of Government, he was offered the 
Great Seal, but he declined the honour, and earned for himself the 
commendation of being " the first lawyer who ever refused an absolute offer 
of the Seals from a conscientious difference of opinion." Upon the accession 
of George I., however, he no longer entertained scruples against accepting 
the honours which party government had to offer him. In March, 1716, 
he was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Parker of Macclesfield, 
took his place in the House of Lords, and returned to the arena of politics, 
and in Ma}', 1718, exchanged the Bench for the Woolsack, and received 
from the King a present of ^14,000, as well as a pension of ^1,200 a 
year for his son. On the 15th November, 1721, he was created Viscount 
Parker of Ewelme and Earl of Macclesfield. 

But he was destined to enjoy his high position only for a comparatively 
short period. The breath of slander was busy about him, and charges of 
defalcations in the offices of some of the Masters in Chancery finally 
fastened themselves upon the Chancellor himself. In February, 1725, Lord 
Macclesfield was impeached at the Bar of the House of Lords, charged 
with selling Masterships in Chancery, with receiving bribes, and with 
conniving at the fraudulent practices of the Masters. In spite of his 
impassioned challenge, in which he submitted his whole life and conduct 
to the scrutiny of his judges, he was found guilty by the unanimous voice 
of the ninety-three peers present. He was deprived of the Great Seal, and 
sentenced to pay a fine of ;^30,ooo to the King, and to imprisonment in 
the Tower until the fine should be paid. Here he remained six weeks, 
until the amount of the fine was raised, and having been released, he 

* The first preferment of Dr. Sacheverell was the curacy of Cannock Church. 



286 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



withdrew into the obscurity of country life, living in a small house near 
Derby. Lord Campbell suggests that it is possible the fallen Chancellor 
may have met, in the end of his career, the schoolfellow and companion 
of his youth, Tom Withers, during his retirement. " It is pleasant to 
think," he says, " that the two schoolfellows socially met when the one 
occupied a stall at Newport, and the other was Lord Chief Justice of 
England ; and that they afterwards renewed their correspondence when the 
one, having lost all his customers, was reduced to penury, and the other 
had been precipitated with disgrace from the highest station -a subject can 
hold in this kingdom." The obloquy which surrounded the fallen Chancellor 
followed him into his retirement, and it became a common saying that 
" Staffordshire had produced three of the greatest rogues that ever existed — 
Jack Sheppard, Jonathan Wild, and Lord Macclesfield." 

Lord Macclesfield lived "in a state of listless existence" nearly seven 
years, and died on the 28th of April, 1732. 




U^. H. Ho,ne, 



ST. EDWARD'S STREET, LEEK. 



Leek, 



^be iprctcnber in Stafforbebire. 




NCE only since 1645, when Charles the First marched with 
his shattered forces through Staffordshire, has the county- 
been excited with the roll of the drum and the call to 
battle. After a century of peace, however, in i745» another 
Charles Stuart, like his great grandfather an outcast and 
a wanderer, inscribed upon his banner the motto, ^^ tandens 
triiimphans'''' and marched through the Shire in quest of a crown. 

No more daring attempt to recover a kingdom is recorded than this 
remarkable raid of Bonnie Prince Charlie on behalf of his father James the 
Pretender. Fifty-five years had elapsed since the Abdication of James II., 
and thirty years since the abortive invasion of his son Prince James. The 
present opportunity was, however, not ill chosen. Time had weakened, but 
not destroyed, the old yearning of the Jacobites. George II., who had 
reigned 18 years, was on the Continent, and the King's army, under the 
inexperienced Duke of Cumberland, the King's younger son, was in Flanders, 
where it had just met with severe defeats at the hands of the French. 

On the 14th July, 1745, "Prince" Charlie the Chevalier, aged 25, left 
Brittany on his Quixotic expedition. He landed on the coast of Lochaber, 
and on the i6th August unfurled the standard of the old regime. The home 
government had plenty on their hands, and his advent was lightly treated. 
A reward of ;^30,ooo was offered for his apprehension, and the King was 
urged to return home, but a month of inactivity enabled the Chevalier to 



288 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



reach Edinburgh,* where he proclaimed his father king, and marched out 
through Musselburgh to give battle to the forces of General Cope. 

The nation was now startled by the intelligence of the terrible and 
disastrous defeat of Cope's army at Piestonpans, where a battle was fought 

and won at daybreak on the 
2ist September. The English 
army and its royal general, 
with 6000 Dutch auxiliaries, or 
mercenaries, were sent for, and 
the north of England was scared. 
A fatal mistake was, however, 
now made by the Chevalier. 
Had he at once marched south 
with his flushed army there 
was nothing to oppose his 
entering London ; t but he 
dallied at Holyrood and Diddi- 
stone until the ist November, 
and not until the 6th did 
he cross the English border. 
Meanwhile the king's army had 
landed at Newcastle- on -Tyne. 
Carlisle was captured on the 
15th t at a cost of six days' 
delay. 

From Carlisle the Highlanders made a straggling march in three columns, 
the van of the army being generally two days in advance of its rear, and 
on the 28th Manchester was reached. 




IV. h. Hor7ie, Leek. 

ANCIENT COLUMN, ST. EDWARD'S CHURCH, LEEK. 



* The General of the Scotch forces, Sir John Cope, marched north to meet the Highland rebels. When he 
had advanced nearly to Inverness, he heard that he had missed them, and that Perth, loo miles to the south, 
was in their hands. He returned by sea from Aberdeen to North Berwick, near Prestonpans, where he was 
met by the enemy. 

t "London," said a contemporary print, "lies open as a prize to the first comers, whether Scotch or Dutch." 
\ Two days after the fall of Carlisle, General Wade arrived with the army from Newcastle, but finding him- 
self too late, he marched back again. 



THE PRETENDER IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 289 

On the same day the duke of Cumberland, fresh from his failures in Flanders, 
reached Lichfield. The royal army was at length being mustered in Staf- 
fordshire. A letter, dated from Lichfield, November 29th, to the panic- 
stricken people of Liverpool, signed, " Your good friend, William," says, 
"This army will be formed in a day or two." The army was formed; 
including mercenaries it numbered 10,500 foot and 1270 horse, with artillery. 
It was cantoned from Tamworth to Stafford, making, it is said, a very fine 
appearance. 

The vanguard of the army, Kingstone's light horse, moved to Newcastle, 
and on the ist and 2nd December was actually in Leek, but fell back to 
meet the Duke then nearing Newcastle. 

Leaving Manchester on Saturday, November 30, the Highland army was 
divided, one section marching through Knutsford to Congleton, and the 
other to Macclesfield. On Monday, the 2nd December, 2000 of the first 
portion entered Congleton, and in the evening a party of their Hussars 
crossed into Staffordshire, and reached Talk-o'-th'-Hill, where at the Red 
Lyon Inn, one Captain Vere was taken prisoner ; much liquor was drank, 
and mine host's horses attached. An alarm was sent to Newcastle four 
miles away,* where five regiments of horse and foot of the Duke's army lay. 
These beat a precipitate retreat before the handful of Highlanders, who 
marched onward to Bagnall, and made Justice Meverill for a brief period 
their prisoner,t en route for Ashbourne. Meanwhile, the second portion of the 
Scots reached Gawsworth on Monday. It was now that the strategetic move- 
ment, which so puzzled the royal duke,, was made. Hitherto their march 
shaped for Shrewsbury. On Tuesday the 3rd, alarmed by the news 
from Newcastle, and apprehending an immediate attack, the duke drew 
up his army in battle array on the open town fields of Stone, and 



* Hearing of the approach of the rebels the drums beat to arms, which put the inhabitants in the utmost 
confusion. The regiments were all drawn up on the parade, and rested under arms some time, when, about 
twelve o'clock at night, they marched out of Newcastle, leaving their baggage unloaden in the market-place, and 
retreated to Sione Town-field, where the Duke drew up his army and artillery, expecting that the rebels would 
come. On the 3rd Tuesday, his royal highness ordered his army into Stone for i\\x&x\.^x%.— Narrative 0/ Volunteer 
Ray. 

t Justice Meverill is said to have had a speedy revenge a week later. A rebel scout was captured, and 
hung on a sign post. He had him flayed like a calf, and sent his hide to the tan yard. 



290 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



there patiently waited until nightfall, and then withdrew into the little 
town of Stone.* 

But on the previous day, the whole of the wide straggling Highland 
forces had suddenly and rapidly turned towards Leek. The extreme eastern 
section, and with it probably the " Bonnie Prince," reaching as far as Dane 
Bridge and Swythamley, entered Leek, on Tuesday morning over Gun Moor 
and Haregate, whilst the main portion of the Congleton section converged 
upon the same point, its more advanced troops hastening to Ashbourne. 

The Chevalier's army was a remarkable one — the Camerons, the Stuarts, 
the McDonalds, and other clans, each distinct in garb, followed their own 
chiefs ; and the French contingent, the adventurous recruits, English, Irish, 
and Scotch, ragged and poorly equipped, had their own leaders. The 
gallant Charles — bravely apparelled in tartan silk and red velvet, with 
feathered bonnet of blue, and wearing his scarf and jewelled Order of St. 
Andrew; tall and comely of person, winning of speech, gallant to the ladies, and 
courteous in his bearing to all, and withal a sharer with his meanest followers 
of all the hardships of the march — naturally formed the central figure of the 
wild horde, as surrounded by a band of picked Highlanders, with a goodly 
share of the standards, and the hundred pipers of the thirteen battalions, he 
wheeled into the ancient and famous market place of Leek. Assuredly a rarer 
show had never been witnessed by the good folk of the old town, nor for 
centuries had the market place been the scene of such a motley gathering.t 

During their stay in Leek, the rebels spent their time in shooting at the 
old Norman cross in the churchyard, and in sharpening their claymores and 
broadswords in readiness for the battle which appeared imminent.! 

* This change of the Chevalier's plans is humorously given by the Bellman of Glasgow, Donald Graham : 



Directed his rout by th' town of Leek, 
Left Cumberland to claw his cheek ; 
Kept south by east to Derby town, 
In full career for London boun". 



To Staffordshire he came at last, 
Where the Duke's army lay 'fore him, 
Well prepared for to devour him. 
He here to fight had no desire. 
Took east the muirs to Derbyshire. 

t In the days of the fighting earls of Chester, Leek must have frequently been the scene of great military 
gatherings, and in the year 1318, the famous assembly of the king, two Roman cardinals, nine English bishops, and 
other great magnates took place here for the making the peace between the king and Thomas, Lord of Lancaster. 

J Long afterwards, the visit of Bonnie Prince Charlie was a treasured memory, and Mary Toft of Haregate, 
probably a daughter of Quaker Toft, who entertained his visitors, remembered being hoisted upon the shoulders 
of a Highlander, and told to look at her future sovereign ; whilst Sarah Sharrett of Pool End remembered 
the Prince shaking hands with all the girls assembled to see him pass.— Sieig/i's Leek. 



THE PRETENDER IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 29 1 

But the glory was of brief duration. Stretching far and wide, reaching 
from Elkstone to Weaver, passing through Blore and Okeover, the invaders 
reached Ashbourne on the 3rd and 4th, and in a few hours afterwards 
entered Derby. 

The scouting of the Duke's army was inferior to that of the Highlanders. 
A royalist messenger, Joshua Ball, sent to the army at Stone, was way- 
laid and made drunk, and the remarkable inactivity of the Duke may per- 
haps be due to the unreliability of his information. His strategic movement 
of seven miles to Stafford, occuping two days, is otherwise inexplicable.* 

During the time of the Duke's stay at Stone and Stafford, the Scotch 
oflficers in Council at Derby had realised that a return to Scotland was 
desirable, and, though opposed by the Chevalier, the whole force left for 
Ashbourne on Friday, the 6th, and on Saturday again reached Leek with 
the artillery. After a brief rest they proceeded the following day, Sunday, 
towards Manchester.! 

Whilst the ChevaUer's forces were speeding north on the 6th, the Duke 
was marching to Lichfield, which city he reached at night.t The next 
morning (Saturday) he proceeded to Meriden Heath, between Coleshill and 
Coventry, and there encamped, the horse having advanced to Coventry, 
where the men received flannel waistcoats from the Quakers of the city. 



• The narrative of James Ray (a military volunteer, who had followed the Highlanders from the north, and 
intercepted their letters sent by post to Scotland) says, he got to Stafford at four in the morning. The town 
was very full, but he got his horses taken care of at the Cross Keys. Though much fatigued by his journey, 
the cold, and want of sleep, he had no opportunity to get to bed ; but, with the help of some good old beer 
and a couple of stewed rabbits, he was refreshed, and went to the Duke and repeated the contents of the 
Highlanders' letters, he had captured. The streets of Stafford he describes as clean and well paved. He does 
not give the Duke's quarters. It is probable, however, that he stayed at the High House, in Greengate Street, 
the old mansion, which a century before Charles I. and Prince Rupert made their headquarters, and which, 
besides its historic associations, has the reputation of being one of the finest specimens of its class existing. 

t A number of local traditions of this famous retreat are extant. It is told that the JoIifTes — the Leek wool 
merchants — were greatly enriched by claiming a small barrel, which long lay unowned in the market place, and 
which proved to be filled with specie of the Scotch army. The drummer's knob, on the Cloud range, takes its 
name traditionally from a Scotch drummer being there shot from a great distance ; whilst the secluded glen at 
Swythamley, known as Meal Ark Clough, is reputed to have secreted all the cattle of the district from the 
marauding of the Highlanders. The tradition that the Chevalier slept one night at the " Royal Cottage," near 
Back Forest, must also apply to this period, whilst the relics preserved at Swythamley, and shown in the 
illustration, page 8i, are weapons unquestionably discarded in the retreat. 

t The quarters of the Duke of Cumberland, at Lichfield, were at the Friary, the house of Mr, Michael 
Rawlins, on the site of the ancient Franciscan monastay. 



292 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



News of the Chevalier's retreat now reached the Duke, and the following 
morning (Sunday) his army started north in full pursuit. By Monday night 
he reached Cheadle and Shelton, and on Tuesday, by way of the Churnet 
Valley and Leek, his advanced forces arrived at Macclesfield. 

It was not, however, until the 
iqth at Clifton, near Penrith, 
that the rear of the Highland 
forces, under Lord Murray, having 
charge of the artillery, and delayed 
by heavy roads, was overtaken, 
and then the pursuers received a 
serious rebuff. At Carlisle, the 
Duke gave up the pursuit, and 
laid siege to the castle. When 
this stronghold surrendered on the 
30th, the Duke left for London, 
whilst the Chevalier reached 
Glasgow on Christmas day. 

That the famous retreat of the 
Highlanders was effected in good 
order is proved by their carrying 
off their guns, notwithstanding 
the knowledge that the army of 
General Wade was marching against 
them from the north. The four 
months' marching was orderly 
and free from rapine and violence, and the Chevalier for his personal 
bravery and restraint, his unstained honour, clemency, and mercy, deservedly 
gained the highest praise. 

On the other hand, the defending forces were alternately swayed by panic, 
passion, or revenge, and to such a length indeed was the vindictive retalia- 
tion and brutal cruelty of the Duke of Cumberland carried, that he was 
ever after known as the " Butcher." 




MEAL ARK CLOUGH. 



THE PRETENDER IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 



293 



The Highlanders held out until the i6th April, when the battle of 
CuUoden finally ended this most singular attempt to recover the crown for 
the ancient line of the Stuarts. After months of fugitive wandering, 
Charles Edward escaped from the Scottish coast on the 20th September, 
and speedily passed into oblivion. 




Samuel Jobneon anb bi0 1bome. 




HIEF among the many illustrious men to whom the county 
of Stafford has given birth, must be reckoned the brightest 
ornament of the eighteenth century, " the Hero as Man 
of Letters," who in his own age enjoyed the reputation of 
a classic, Samuel Johnson. His father, Michael Johnson, 
who was born in 1655, and apprenticed at Leek, settled 
as a bookseller at Lichfield, having also shops (or perhaps stalls only) at 
Uttoxeter and Ashby-de-la-Zouch,* and he also, on market days, travelled to 
Birmingham, and other towns within the radius of a few hours' journey 
from Lichfield. He was a man of some literary accomplishments (spoken 
of as " the learned Lichfield librarian,") and was highly respected by his 
neighbours. In Birmingham, where his brother Andrew was a bookseller, 
as early as 1702, he probably became acquainted with his future wife, 
Sarah Ford, daughter of Cornelius Ford, of King's Norton, yeoman, and 
they were married at Packwood Church. As a bookseller he prospered, and 
was made a magistrate, and, during the year in which Samuel Johnson was 
born, held the oflSce of Sheriff of the City. His wife was a woman of good 
sense and high moral character. They married comparatively late in life, 
and had only two sons, Samuel and Nathaniel, and the latter only lived to 
the age of twenty-five. 



* One of the medical works of Sir John Floyer, of Lichfield, was "Printed for Michael Johnson, Bookseller, 
and are to be sold ai his shops at Litchfield and Uttoxeter^ in Staffordshire, and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in 
Leicestershire, 1687." 



SAMUEL JOHNSON AND HIS HOME. 



295 



Samuel Johnson was born in the fine old-fashioned house at the corner 
of the Market Square in Lichfield, on the 7th September, 1709, and 
baptised on the day of his birth at St. Mary's Church, which stands 

opposite his birthplace. From early youth 
he was greatly aflflicted, and, in accord- 
ance with the superstition of the time, 
was taken to London to be " touched " 
by the royal hands of Queen Anne, of 
whom in after life, he had " a sort of 
solemn recollection," as of " a lady in 
diamonds and a long black hood." Eut 
the charm did not work — some said the 
virtue of the royal touch had died with 
the last Stuart King— and poor Johnson 
carried through life a disfigured counten- 
ance, and was, beside, parcel-blind, as the 
result of his dire disorder. 

Several stories attest the precocity of 
the future genius in his early youth. 
When he was only three years old he 
is said to have taken a lively interest 
in that firebrand of the church militant. Dr. Sacheverell, and to have 
prevailed upon his father to take him to the Cathedral to hear the non- 
juring doctor preach. The figure of the baby-partisan, perched on his 
father's shoulders, in the Cathedral, listening to Sacheverell, has been per- 
petuated in a sculptured panel on the pedestal of the Lichfield statue of 
Johnson. His schooldays were passed at the Grammar School of Lichfield, 
under John Hunter,* where he easily distanced all his fellows in learning, 
but took no part in their boyish sports, prefering rather to sit in a corner 
reading the old romances of chivalry, or any other book he could lay his 




T. Crioidy, Lichfield. 

BIRTHPLACE OF DR. JOHNSON. 



♦ John Hunter, M.A., originally of Birmingham, was Master of Solihull School, from 1694 to 1704. In 17^4 
he married Lucy Porter, sister of Henry Porter, the Birmingham Mercer, whose widow Johnson afterwards 
married. Hunter's daughter by his first wife was mother of Anna Seward. 




DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. 
(From the portrait, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the National Gallery.) 



SAMUEL JOHNSON AND HIS HOME. 297 

hands on. His aptness for learning made him somewhat of a favourite 
among his companions, as he was thereby often enabled to help them in 
their lessons, while they, in return, ministered to his slothful, indolent 
habit by bearing him on their shoulders to and from the school. 

At the age of fifteen he was forbidden, it is said, to continue his 
studies at the Grammar School, by his schoolmaster, in consequence of his 
having addressed some verses to the schoolmaster's niece. Miss Lucy Porter. 
He therefore removed to the Grammar School at Stourbridge, where 
he remained only about a year ; after which he spent two years at 
home in a somewhat aimless fashion. Probably during these two years he 
accompanied his father to the distant market towns on many occasions, 
sometimes, perhaps, taking his father's place at the stall. There were many 
small market towns within a radius of fifteen or sixteen miles of Lichfield, 
at which it would be profitable to set up a bookstall occasionally, while 
the places previously named would each have to be visited at least once a 
week. Hence it would be convenient to Michael Johnson to send his son, 
— now a well-grown youth, over the average size, and full of curious book- 
knowledge— in his place to some of the lesser markets. We know, at any 
rate, that he once refused to take his father's place at Uttoxeter market — for 
which act he did penance in later days. He also learned something of the 
art of binding books, and seems to have been designated to follow his 
father's calling. 

During these years of Johnson's residence at home his father was engaged 
in a new branch of business — that of making parchment — in which he not 
only lost most of the money he had made by bookselling, but also brought 
down upon himself a prosecution for some offence against the Excise Laws 
(parchment being an exciseable article) ; and it was doubtless this trouble 
which implanted in the mind of young Johnson that bitterness against the 
Excise which he manifested both in his great Dictionary and in his IMcr 
Essays. 

Samuel Johnson, however, in spite of his father's reduced circumstances, 
managed to escape from the drudgery of the book shop to the more con- 
genial atmosphere of the university — mainly, it is said, through the assistance 



298 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE, 



of a fellow-Student, Andrew Corbet, who was in turn helped by Johnson 
in his studies. Throughout the three years which he spent at Pembroke 
College, Oxford, however, he was hampered by poverty, and he left without 
a degree. Meanwhile his father had fallen into a state of insolvency, and 
died soon after his son's return from Oxford, and thus Johnson was thrown 
upon his own resources. He sought and obtained the post of usher at 
Market Bosworth, but left it very soon, finding the dull routine irksome to 
him. From thence, therefore, he tramped to Birmingham, to stay for a 
time with his old friend and schoolfellow Hector (who had set up as a 




ANCIENT HOUSE IN BORE STREET, LICHFIELD. 



surgeon in Birmingham), and there spent some months in the hope that in 
some way he might find a means of livelihood. Here he occupied his 
leisure by translating Father Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia, which was printed 
in Birmingham in 1735, and thus he began his literary career. While here. 



SAMUEL JOHNSON AND HIS HOME. 299 

too, he made the acquaintance of the widow of Henry Porter, whom he 
married a few months later, and took a large house at Edial, near Lichfield, 
and set up a private academy, where "young children" might be "boarded 
and taught the Latin and Greek by Samuel Johnson." Only two pupils, 
however, were attracted by the young usher's advertisement in the Gentle- 
mail's Magazine^ but both, in a way, were notable, one of them being the 
future ornament of the British stage, David Garrick, and the other, the son 
of Mr. Offley of Wichnor Park — the ancient manor of the Somervilles, 
which was held by the " flitch of bacon " tenure referred to in an earlier 
chapter. 

The attempt to establish a school proving a failure, Johnson resolved to 
seek his fortune in London. He had already been in communication with 
Mr. Edward Cave, of the Gentleman^s Magazine^ and he again sought an 
entrance to the pages of the famous monthly, and at the same time set 
about writing a tragedy entitled Irene. The former enterprise was more 
successful than the latter, for while the tragedy was not acted till 1749, his 
contributions to the Gentlemaii's Magazine became his principal source of 
employment and support for some time to come. 

It is no purpose of this brief sketch to follow Johnson through the 
vicissitudes of his literary career, but rather to note his relation to the 
county of Staiford. On his journey to London he had for his com- 
panion his quondam pupil, Davy Garrick ; and Johnson used to say after- 
wards that he had journeyed thither with twopence-halfpenny in his 
pocket, while his companion had only three-halfpence. He shortly 
afterwards returned to Lichfield to fetch his wife, and thereafter settled 
in London. When he next visited Lichfield, he had become the fore- 
most man of letters of his time ; had published his great dictionary, his 
essays, and most of his writings, and had received the degree of M.A. 
from Oxford, and of LL.D. from Dublin. He found the streets much 
narrower and shorter than he had thought when he left them, and they 
were inhabited by a new race of people ; his old play-fellows having 
grown old, and many of them had, like his mother and his wife, gone to 
swell the great majority. This was in 1762, and he again visited Lichfield 



300 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



and spent three months there in 1765, about the time his edition of the 
works of Shakespeare was published. By this time he was in the enjoy- 
ment of a pension of Xs^Oj granted to him by King George III. (with 
whom he had had an interview, as described by Boswell) through the 
influence of Lord Bute. 

In 1 77 1, we find him again in Staffordshire. At Lichfield, he found that 
the portrait of him by Sir Joshua Reynolds (in the possession of Miss Lucy 
Porter, his step-daughter) was " much visited and much admired." This 
trip was his only "summer wandering" this year, as he was engaged in 
" a very great work," the revision of the Dictionary. Next year he pur- 
posed to go to Scotland. 

It was not until 1776 that he again visited Lichfield, and on this visit 
he was accompanied by Boswell. They stayed on the way in Birmingham 
at the house of Hector, in the Square, and Boswell visited the famous 
Soho works, regretting that Johnson could not accompany him. " It was a 
scene," he said, " which I should have been glad to contemplate by his 
light. The vastness of the machinery would have ' matched his mighty 
mind.' " But vast machinery was not to Johnson's taste. When they came 
in sight of the lamps of Lichfield — the little country town, whose narrow 
streets had become contracted in his imagination — he said, " now we are 
getting out of a state of death." Here there was no vast machinery ; 
to Boswell the inhabitants seemed " an idle set of people." " Sir," said 
Johnson, " we are a city of philosophers ; we work with our heads, and 
make the boobies of Birmingham work for us with their hands." 

The society of the little country town at that time had some attractions 
even for one accustomed to the gaieties of the metropolis. Thomas Day, the 
eccentric genius who wrote "Sandford and Merton," Richard Lovell 
Edgeworth, the famous Dr. Erasmus Darwin, Anna Seward (" the Swan of 
Lichfield ") and others of note, all lived in the immediate neighbourhood of 
Lichfield at that time. Peter Garrick, too, the brother of the more famous 
David, was among the circle of Johnson's friends, while his step-daughter, 
Lucy Porter, had ever a warm welcome for him. Her brother, a captain 
in the navy, had died, leaving her a fortune of ten thousand pounds. 



SAMUEL JOHNSON AND HIS HOME. 30I 

About a third of this amount she had expended in building a stately house, 
and making a handsome garden, in an elevated situation in Lichfield. 
Thereafter she occupied a good position in the society of the little city, and 
at her house Johnson found a home befitting his position, whenever he 
visited his native city. 

It must have been on this occasion that he visited Uttoxeter for the 
purpose of doing penance for his disobedience of many years ago. Warner, 
in his Tour through the Northern Coicnties^ thus recounts this remarkable 
incident : 

'" During the last visit* which the Doctor made to Lichfield, the friends with whom he was 
staying missed him one morning at the breakfast table. On inquiring after him of the 
servants, they understood he had set off from Lichfield at a very early hour, without 
mentioning to any of the family whither he was going. The day passed without the return of 
the illustrious guest, when, just before the supper-hour, the door opened and the Doctor stalked 
into the room. A solemn silence of a few moments ensued, nobody daring to inquire the 
cause of his absence, which was at length relieved by Johnson addressing the lady of the house 
in the following manner : ' Madam, I beg your pardon for the abruptness of my departure from 
your house this morning, but I was constrained to it by my conscience. Fifty years ago, 
Madam, on this day, I committed a breach of filial piety which has ever since lain heavy on 
my mind, and has not till this day been expiated. My father, you recollect, was a bookseller, 
and had^ long been in the habit of attending Uttoxeter market, and opening a stall for the 
sale of his books during that day. Confined to his bed by indisposition, he requested me, 
this time fifty years ago, to visit the market and attend the stall in his place. But, Madam, 
my pride prevented me from doing my duty, and I gave my father a refusal. To do away 
with the sin of this disobedience, I this day went in a postchaise to Uttoxeter, and going into 
the market at the time of high business, uncovered my head, and stood with it bare an hour 
before the stall which my father had formerly used, exposed to the sneers of the standers-by, 
and the inclemency of the weather ; a penance by which I trust I have propitiated Heaven for 
this only instance, I believe, of contumacy toward my father.' " 

Johnson was- again in Staffordshire in 1777, when on one of his visits to 
Dr. Taylor, at Ashbourne, he, with Boswell, visited Ham Hall and Park, 
formerly the home of the Congreve family, where one of the most 
famous members of that family, the dramatist of that name, wrote his 
" Mourning Bride," and other comedies. The fine amphitheatre of hills, 
covered with verdure, and the picturesque walks constructed along the side 



* This could not be correct. Johnson again visited Lichfield in 1784, and as he himself says the penance took place 
fifty years after the act of disobedience, it could not have been later than 1776 or 1777. Michael Johnson had been 
dead fifty-four years at the time of Dr. Johnson's last visit to Lichfield. 



302 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



of a rocky steep, won the admiration of Boswell ; and the curiosity of 
both was aroused by the sight of " two rivers bursting near each other 
from the rock, after having run for many miles underground."* Johnson 

was incredulous as 
to the subterranean 
course of the rivers, 
" though," says Bos- 
well, " we had the 
attestation of the 
gardener, who said 
he had put in corks, 
where the river 
Many fold sinks into 
the ground, and had 
caught them in a net, 
placed before one of 
the openings where 
the water bursts 
out." 

Being on so many 
occasions within a 
few miles of the 
beauties of Dove 
Dale (during his visits 
to Dr. Taylor), it is 
somewhat surprising 
to find no mention 
of this picturesque 
valley in the Life of 
Johnson ; yet there 
can be little doubt that he must have explored it on one of his visits to this 
neighbourhood. Having conquered the natural indolence of his disposition 




A. y. Leeson. 



LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL (INTERIOR.) 



* The Hamps and Manifold. 



SAMUEL JOHNSON AND HIS HOME. 



303 



SO far as to make a tour into the Hebrides, it would be strange if he did 
not make the slight effort to visit this famous locality in his native county. 
Dr. Johnson visited Lichfield for the last time in 1784, He was in 
failing health, and might well have remained in the city which he apostro- 
phised with affection in his Dictionary, and there ended his days surrounded by 
loving friends. But the greater fascination of London drew him away after 
a short visit, and calling on his friend Hector, in Birmingham, for the 
last time, he returned to the Metropolis. In December he wrote to Mr. 
Green, an apothecary, of Lichfield, enclosing inscriptions for the tombs of 
his parents and his long dead brother, Nathaniel, to be placed " in the 
middle aisle of St. Michael's Church," having previously " laid a stone over 
Tetty [his wife] in the chapel of Bromley, in Kent." On the 13th of the 
same month he died, and was buried among the mighty dead in Poet's 
Corner. A bust was erected to his memory in Lichfield Cathedral by his 
friends, and in later years a statue was erected in the little Market Place, 
opposite the house in which he was born. The pedestal was adorned with 
bas-reliefs, representing several notable events in his life, the most notable 
being that of his penance in Uttoxeter Market Place. But his most 
enduring monument is the great biography written by his friend and 
companion, James Boswell. In this he is made to live and speak again 
to every age. 



Zbe learl^ potter0. 




HE waters of the river Trent flow through no more remark- 
able district than where its upper reaches and its tribu- 
taries pass the towns, villages, and hamlets which combine 
to make the Potteries. Here for untold ages has the potter 
toiled. The enduring interest of the potter's work surpasses 
that of all others. By it history is written — alike in the 
broken shards buried but a few centuries and in the sepulchral urns and 
vessels moulded by the hand of the Celt and burnt in the wood coal fires 
of 2000 years ago— the story of man's condition, his rudeness or skill, his 
barbarism or refinement, is told. 

The mist of early ages enshrouds alike the early ironworker and the 
primeval potter ; yet in the case of the latter it is not impenetrable. 
Survivals of the undoubted work of the ancient British potter have been 
recovered at Stone, Trentham, Shelton, Yoxall, Uttoxeter, Wetton, and other 
districts. Cinerary urns, containing the ashes and burnt bones of the dead, 
smaller vessels for drinking purposes, food vessels, and incense cups, these 
treasurable relics exhibit in form and ornamentation a progressive tendency in 
the potter's art. 

Although the Engle and Saxon invaders were slow in adopting potter's 
ware for domestic use, yet urns for sepulchral purposes, somewhat ruder and 
varying in ornamentation from the specimens of earlier workers, were 
produced, and eventually the potter found a more general demand for his 



ware. 



THE EARLY POTTERS. 



305 



It is impossible to decide how far the devastating effect of Norman rule 
destroyed the industry of the Staffordshire clay districts, but it is certain 
that for centuries the product was confined to the ruder kinds of domestic 
ware, and these were produced in 
the neighbourhood of Wednesbury 
and elsewhere as well as in the 
pottery district around Burslem ; 
whilst the production of tiles was 
carried on at Great Saredon, near 
Wolverhampton, and in other parts 
of Staffordshire and its border-land. 

It is of more than passing 
interest to know upon good 
evidence that, from the earliest 
period of pot making, Burslem was 
known to the Romans. It lay 
near the city of Chesterton and 
adjacent to the then great Roman 
road, the Rykeneldway or Via 
Devana. But more than this the 
Rykeneld had undoubtedly been 

a British trackway, so that Burslem has a fair title to a British or Celtic 
origin. 

Another claim to great antiquity lies in its name, Bur-wardes-lyme, a 
name derived like Chesterton, Newcastle, Audlem, Whitmore, Madeley, 
and many other places, with the affix — under-lyme, from its lying near or 
under the great dividing wood limit, boundary, or mark of the early races. 
The claim, therefore, of Burslem to be the mother town of the Potteries 
is clear and unassailable. 

Passing from, medieval to modern times, Burslem is found most prominent 
in the earliest written evidence of pot making. Thus among the earliest 
domestic and other pottery the Uttoxeter butter pot is shown by Plot to 
be Burslem ware, and, as the well-known Church accounts of Uttoxeter 




JOSIAH WEDGWOOD. 



3o6 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



record the use of these pots in 1644, they may fairly be assumed to have 
been made long before.* 

Dr. Plot's observations were written about 1677. Soon afterwards a series 
of improved processes were originated which speedily brought the pottery 
district of Burslem into prominence. Some of these processes are not with- 
out their romance. About 1680, one Palmer, a potter, acquired the art of 
salt glazing from the accidental boiling over of a pot of salt liquor, in the 
neighbouring village of Bagnall. Previous to 1680, the gloss was obtained 
by calcined lead powdered and sprinkled before firing. The earliest butter 
pots discovered, which weighed about six pounds, were unglazed. Pots of 
later date were partially glazed by powdered lead ore, not calcined. After 
1680, salt was introduced largely into all glazing processes. 

About 1688, two Dutchmen, brothers, and of good lineage, John Philip 
and David Elers, found their way to Burslem. Like all Dutchmen they 
knew what they wanted, and between Burslem and the ancient city of 
Chesterton, they were successful in their search for a vein of red clay of 
superior quality. From their kilns were produced wares comparable with 
the red porcelain of the East, and worthy precursors of the wares of Josiah 
Wedgwood. Their processes, long kept secret, were ultimately divulged. Two 
potters, Astbury and Twyford, both acquired them. Astbury is credited 
with having foisted himself upon the brothers as an idiot, the species of 
workmen they preferred. 

Subsequently this Astbury became a prosperous potter at Shelton. In 
one of his business journeys to London, the ostler of a Dunstable inn 
burnt some flint to apply in a powdered state to the eyes of Astbury's 
horse. Struck with some remarkable results of the burning and powdering, 
he commenced experiments in flint glazing. He was completely successful, 
and realised a handsome fortune. His son, Samuel, married an aunt of 
Josiah Wedgwood, the Prince of Potters. 

*Dr. Plot's well-known and interesting paragraph states that vast quantities of butter and cheese were sold at 
Uttoxeter Mercat to the London dealers: — "The butter they buy by the Pot, of a long cylindrical form, made at 
Burslem, in this county." The Churchwardens' Accounts record that "On the 7th May, 1644, 8 c. 2q. 7 lbs. of 
cheese and five pots of butter were sent to the garrison at Tutbury Castle." In 1661, an Act of Parliament was 
passed to regulate the size, thickness, and quality of the butter pots, for the prevention of frauds which had arisen, 
the butter being always sold by the pot and not by weight. 



THE EARLY POTTERS. 307 



Among the earliest potters whose names have been preserved, were 
Thomas Toft, William Taylor, William Sans, Ralph Toft, and Thomas 
Wedgwood. The last named was probably an apprentice between 1630-40. 
He belonged to a family of potters. The Wedgwood family was not only 
the most important in Burslem, but of the longest standing, its connection 
with the town extending from a very rude period of its history until its 
fame became world wide.* 

Thomas Wedgwood, who died in 1679, was succeeded in his pottery 
by his son Thomas, and he, again, by another Thomas, the father of 
Josiah, the greatest of the Wedgwoods, the most famous of English potters, 
during whose life the trade of the district became greatly changed. 

We are told by Plot that when the pots were burnt they were drawn for 
sale chiefly by poor cratemen, who carried them on their backs all over the 
country. The itinerant vending of pottery has remained an element of the trade 
for ages ;t but the artistic productions of Josiah Wedgwood speedily rivalled 
the best wares of the Kingdom, and the trade of the Potteries was no 
longer dependent on the cratemen. The demand became world-wide ; and 
what Matthew Boulton afterwards was to Soho and Birmingham Josiah 
Wedgwood was to the Potteries. 

Josiah Wedgwood had the rare insight which led him to see that what 
had been accomplished in the production of artistic pottery abroad might 
also be accomplished here, by the use of best materials and the employment 

* Burslem, says Jewitt, was then a small, unassuming, struggling little place, with the houses and pot works, few 
in number, scattered about its gardens and by its lane sides. Where the Town Hall now stands was the 
May-pole. In every direction were the pits which had yielded the clay, and the shard rucks, the accumulated 
heaps of broken pottery and wastrels. Ray, in his History of the Rebellion of 1745, speaking of Newcastle near 
Chesterton-under-Lyme, says :—" The town is surrounded with coal pits, and about three miles from it is a manu- 
facture of earthenware which imitates brown china, and make curious Black Tea Pots resembling Japan, being 
neatly figured and gilt. 

t Thomas Holcroft, the playwright and poet, when a boy, assisted his father as a pottery crateman. He says his 
father was a trafficker in whatever would bring gain. The one thing which fixed his attention longer than any other 
and which he found most lucrative, was to fetch pottery from the neighbourhood of Burslem, and to hawk it all 
through the North of England. In order to employ his asses, he also occasionally sent his lad to Cannock to 
get an ass load of coals at the pits, and drive over the heath to find a customer for them at Rugeley. On 
one occasion, young Holcroft, after passing through the heavy clay ruts and deep roads, had his ass and cart 
blown over in a gale of wind, on the summit of a hill. In telling this story, Holcroft grows pathetic over his 
grief and utter despair, but proceeds : The coal pits were situated on the extremity of an old forest, inhabited 
by large quantities of red deer. At these I always stopped to look ; but what inspired and delighted me most 
of all was the noble stag, for to him the deer appeared insignificant. He I often saw bounding along, eyeing 
objects without fear, and making prodigious leaps over obstacles that opposed his pass&g^. — Thomas Holcro/t's 
Memoirs. 



3o8 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



of men of taste as designers. He therefore secured the assistance of the 
foremost classic artist of his time, John Flaxman, as well as other skilled 
designers, and spared no pains in seeking for suitable clays for use in the 




MEDALLION FROM A DESIGN BY JOHN FLAXMAN. 
{^^ow in the possession of Sir Richard Tangye.) 



production of his ware.* As a result, his artistic productions — as he himself 
said — "only wanted time and scarcity to make them worth anything," and 
time has proved the truth of the remark. Articles which when produced 
cost only a few pence or shillings, are now the treasured possessions of the 



* One notable example of this is the beautiful medallion here engraved, which was made from a special clay 
brought by Sir Joseph Banks from Sydney, and the medallion itself designed by Flaxman. When Sir Richard 
Tangye, the present owner of the medallion, was in Sydney some years ago, he found there a clay of the same 
nature as that used in the medallion. 



THE EARLY POTTERS. 



309 



virtuosi or of the great museums. '* Could Wedgwood rise again," says his 
biographer, Miss Eliza Meteyard, " he would stand amazed at the veneration 
and regard which cleaves to his name and his productions. Men of the 
highest intellectual gifts collect the latter ; and we are beginning to see that 
we may resort to his art for the expression of sentiments at once appreciative 
and reverent." 

The traditions of the historic pottery of Etruria are being carried on in 
many directions to-day. What he dimly foresaw in the future for terra-cotta, 
for instance, has been largely realised by the great potters of our time, and 
results which the low artistic culture of Wedgwood's time did not allow him 
to realise are now being accomplished in this material, while the Stafford- 
shire potteries still hold a high position as the home of artistic productions 
in fictile wares. The Staffordshire potters of to-day, indeed, are reaping the 
harvest of a widespread appreciation of artistic pottery, which was created 
in the first instance by the productions of Josiah Wedgwood, 




SOHO PARK. 



a Captain of 3n^u0tr1?. 

N the Staffordshire side of Birmingham, nearly two miles 
distant from that town, there stretched an expanse of heathy 
moorland, used a century and a half ago as a rabbit warren, 
and on which almost the only building then standing was 
a warrener's hut. At the same time there was on Snow 
Hill in Birmingham a firm of " toy-makers," father and 
son, both bearing the name of Matthew Boulton* — the elder a native of 
Lichfield, whose enterprise in the making of " toys," so called, that is, of 
trinkets, buckles, buttons, and other fancy small wares, had already done 
something to remove the stigma attaching to " Brummagem " wares. 




* The younger Matthew was born 1728, and was educated in the school of St. John's, Deritend, by the Rev. 
John Hausted. In the Saint Philip's Church Register are the following entries :— 1724, March 31 ; Baptism, 
Matthew, son of Matthew Bolton. 1726, March 4 : Burial, Matthew, son of Matthew Bolton. 1728, September 18 : 
Baptism, Matthew son of Matthew Boulton. 



A CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY. 



311 



In 1759 the elder Boulton died, and in the following year young Matthew 
Boulton married Anne, the daughter of Luke Robinson, Esq., of Lichfield, 
and received with her a dowry of /s 8,000. Thus equipped, he cast about 

for a site for a larger factory 
than that in which he and his 
father had worked, intending 
to extend his business and 
develop it into a great under- 
taking. His choice fell on the 
aforementioned heath, and here 
he set up the Soho Factory, 
wherein he hoped to found, as 
it were, " a great industrial 
college, which should train a 
race of highly-skilled workmen, 
and make the manufactures of 
Soho and the fame of Matthew 
Boulton honoured the world 
over."* For he was no longer 
content to go on making mere 
trinkets and buttons ; he was 
ambitious to produce works as 
artistic in metal as Josiah 
Wedgwood had begun to make 
in pottery. With this view he 
visited the British Museum and 
the homes of the most celebrated virtuosi in England, borrowing or copying 
fine examples of metal work belonging to the Queen and many noblemen 
of taste, and examining such rare collections as that of Horace Walpole, at 
Strawberry Hill. He also bought vases, statuary, and other choice works 
of art from Italy, in his eagerness to have the most artistic models for his 
workmanship. 




MATTHEW BOULTON. 
Reproduced, by permission, from " The Making of Birmingham.' 



S. Timmins on " Matthew Boulton,' 



3 1 2 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



Tn all this he was doubtless inspired by the example of the great 
Staffordshire potter — indeed, he even wished to becomie a potter himself — 
and no work which he was able to do at this time pleased him better 
than the mounting in metal of some of Wedgwood's beautiful productions. 

Thus, proceeding from one achievement to another — making curious 
mechanical and astronomical clocks to adorn the court of the Russian 
Empress, employing Flaxman and other artists of repute to make designs for 
him, gathering around him a large band of skilled workers in metal, enamel, 
glass, stones, and other materials, and having " almost every machine that 
was applicable to the arts," — Matthew Boulton succeeded in making the 
Soho Factory famous, and attracted to Handsworth Heath distinguished 
visitors from all countries. But his great ambition was fettered by the lack 
of some more powerful motor, whereby the great machinery might be driven 
to better purpose ; his chief motive power up to this time had been 
furnished from an adjoining pool, and in dry weather he had been compelled 
to supplement this by horse power. His receptive mind — willing to consider 
even the most (apparently) Utopian schemes — naturally, therefore, turned 
towards the experiments which James Watt had been making, in far-off 
Greenock, and through the kind offices of two friends Boulton and Watt 
were brought together— the one, a fearless, enterprising captain of industry, 
ready to adventure his all in the pursuit of his purposes, the other a diffident, 
timid genius, whose great schemes could never have been brought to a 
practical issue without the encouragement and co-operation of such a one 
as Boulton. That the great manufacturer had as much to offer Watt as 
the latter had to bring was unquestionable, and it was not to be wondered 
at that the Scottish inventor speedily found it to his advantage to become 
allied with Boulton, and thereupon came and established himself with his 
partner at Handsworth. With the help of the skilled workmen of the Soho 
factory the steam engine soon assumed a practical shape, and Boulton and 
Watt had now not only power enough to drive all the machinery in the 
great factory, but they also had power to sell to all who wished to buy. 

The fame of the Soho factory attracted to it skilful and ingenious work- 
men — and men who were more than mere workmen, like William Murdock, 



A CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY. 



313 



the shrewd Scotch engineer, who, although occupying only the position of 
a servant to the firm, speedily proved himself a worthy " right-hand man " 
to the two partners ; and Francis Eginton, the genius who re-discovered 




suhO factory. 
Reproduced, by permission, from " The Makitig 0/ Birmingham." 

the art of stained glass, and astonished the cognoccntz hy his "sun pictures" 
from the designs of Reynolds, West, Loutherberg, and other artists of 
repute. Wedgwood, among others, was a willing purchaser of these curious 
productions, and in many ways Eginton proved himself a valuable ally of 
Boulton and Watt. 

The attraction which this busy hive of workers in curious arts had for 
men of ability led to the formation of a sort of literary and scientific club, 
which met at the houses of various members, but most frequently at the 
house of Matthew Boulton, which he was proud to call I'hotcl d^amite stir 
Handsworth Heath. As many of the members lived at remote distances 
from the place of meeting, and as the roads and lanes of Staflfordshire were 
without lamps or other artificial illumination, a full moon was a most 



314 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



important factor in determining the date of meetings, hence the club 
was dubbed the " Lunar Society." To its meetings many men of note in the 
neighbourhood were attracted. Dr. Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Day, and 
Richard Lovel Edgeworth came from Lichfield, Samuel Galton, the banker 
and chemist, from Great Barr, and Joseph Priestley, the minister of the 
Birmingham New Meeting who had achieved fame in the scientific world 
by his researches on the nature of gases, came from Fair Hill. Josiah 
Wedgwood, too, was occasionlly drawn from his engrossing pursuits at his 
famous potteries to join in the social intercourse of this notable society, and 
men of wide renown, like Sir Joseph Banks, Sir William Herschel, Smeaton, 
and Dr. Samuel Parr were occasional visitors. Among the rest James Watt's 
brilliant but short-lived son Gregory, Dr. Small, James Keir, and other local 
men ^of note joined in the deliberations and social amenities of the famous 
Soho circle. 

These social enjoyments, however, were but as occasional breaks in the 
severe strain and anxious worry which beset the firm of Boulton and Watt 
after the launching of the new branch of manufacture for the production of 
steam engines. Spies dogged the gates of Soho, and sought to worm out 
the secrets of the inventors. One of these even managed to pick up from 
the workmen in the kitchen of the " Waggon and Horses " (a roadside inn 
near Soho), Watt's design for the rotary crank, and succeeded in anticipating 
the inventor in getting a patent for it. Workmen who had been trained 
in the Soho factory were enticed away by would-be rivals, and frequent 
troubles arose from the imperfect knowledge of those who had to work the 
engines which were sent out from Soho. But with so efficient a helper as 
Murdock — who is described as " flying from mine to mine " in Cornwall to 
put to rights engines which had been thrown out of gear by those who 
worked them — the latter trouble was greatly minimized. 

Moreover, Boulton and Watt were both engaged on new enterprises. The 
former was desirous of applying his steam power to the coining of money, 
and was ambitious to set up a mint at Soho, from whence he should issue 
a copper coinage worthy of the nation. " Of all the mechanical subjects I 
ever entered upon," he writes, " there is none in which I ever engaged 



A CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY. 315 

with SO much ardour as that of bringing to perfection the art of coinage in 
the reign of George III., as well as of checking the injurious and fatal 
crime of counterfeiting." Orders soon came in for copper coin from the 
East India Company, and subsequently from the French Republic, but it 
was not until 1797 that he was commissioned to execute a copper coinage 
for Great Britain. He ultimately, however, had the satisfaction, not only of 
making a new copper coinage, but also of furnishing a new mint on Tower 
Hill with the necessary machinery of the improved type which he had 
designed. 

Meanwhile, Watt was busily engaged on a new invention for copying 
letters, by a process practically the same as the copying press now in use. 
He met with much opposition at first, both from bankers and members of 
Parliament, who were fearful lest it should lend itself to fraud. Ultimately, 
however, their fears were allayed, and the copying press won its way into 
public favour. 

William Murdock, too, had his pet hobbies on hand, and was frightening 
the Cornish folk with his model locomotive, which breathed forth fire and 
smoke as it traversed the less frequented lanes, and led some worthy people 
to suspect that Watt's engineer had dealings with the evil one. A more 
practical hobby of his was that of gas lighting, which he brought to such 
perfection that at length the Soho firm were able to contract for the setting 
up of gas- manufacturing plant, and to send forth from the factory on Hands- 
worth Heath a light which was destined ultimately to illumine the darkness 
of every town in the kingdom. 

And thus with one important invention after another coming forth from 
the Soho factory, Boulton and Watt not only attained the foremost position 
among manufacturers, but also amassed considerable fortune, so that the 
partners were enabled, at the close of the century, to retire from active 
participation in the firm. Boulton, however, continued to take some part 
in its direction, feeling that " he must either rub or rust," and although 
Watt retired to the pleasant groves of Heathfield, he still pursued his 
hobbies, in a garret in Heathfield House which has become classic. When 
he died, in 181 9 — -just ten years after his famous partner had been borne to 




STATUE OF JAMES WATT (BY CHANTREY) IN HANDS\VORTH CHURCH. 
Reproduced, by permission, from " The Making of Birmingham." 



A CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY. 



317 



the grave by the workmen to whom he had been a veritable " captain of 
industry " — this workshop was allowed to remain exactly as its master had 
left it, and in that condition it remains to-day ; a more fitting memorial of 
the man who gave to the world a new power than even the noble statue 
by Chantrey which marks his last resting-place in Handsworth Church. 

While the tools remain in the garret at Heathfield just as Watt left 
them, the Soho factory has passed into oblivion. Not a stone remains of 
the great workshop where Boulton and Watt, Murdock, and Eginton laboured 
to perfect their inventions ; but the dust of these fellow-workers in the 
cause of progress lies mingled in the little chapel attached to Handsworth 
Church, whose walls are inscribed with the names and achievements of 
master and servant alike. 



K^^ 


t^^^ 


^0^ 


3S^^^ 


r^^§ 


ixr^ 


Wf^l 


W^i 


w^^ 


J&^2 


!i^t^ 






^^^^ 


^^^3 




Son0 of tbe Sblre. 




N chronicling the exploits of Staffordshire men of old, the 
earls and knights of Saxon or Norman age, the Crusaders, 
the mail-clad partisans of Stephen or Maud, of Richard or 
Bolingbroke, of York or Lancaster, of King or Commons, 
the list of those who achieved honour in arms is not 
exhausted. The scroll of fame has yet other names whose 
life's story, writ in modern times, deservedly ranks with those of older 
warriors by sea or by land. Anson, Jervis, Gardner, Paget, and Parker 
are but successors to the Devereuxs, Levesons, Dudleys, Shirleys, Stanleys, 
Verduns, Ferrers, Bassets, Staffords, Meschines, and a host of fighting men,, 
reaching far back until lost in the mist of time. 

The Staffordshire family of Anson, first of Dunston and then of Shug- 
borough, has a long connection with the shire. The voluminous records of 
civil war times are full of entries of the pains and penalties imposed upon 
the Ansons for their loyalty. Shugborough Hall, with its park of surpassing 
natural beauty, lying in the vale of the Trent, was purchased by William 
Anson, a lawyer of eminence of the time of James I., and his grandson 
William held it in 1697, when his younger son, George, the future 
admiral, was born. 

At the age of nineteen George Anson was sent to the Baltic, and at 
twenty-five became a captain. After a career of great valour, he, in 1739, 
took the command of a small fleet against the Spaniards, and for brilliant 
services was rewarded, in 1744, by promotion to the rank of rear-admiral, 



SONS OF THE SHIRE. 



319 



and subsequently vice-admiral of the Blue, with a peerage. As Lord Anson, 
he, 1 76 1, achieved his highest dignity, that of Commander-in-chief of the 
British Navy. He died the following year, at the age of sixty-five, after 
an active service (probably unexcelled in naval history) of forty-six years. 




y. Garland, 



Cannock. 



SHUGBOROUGH BRIDGE. 



Whilst Anson was making his famous voyage round the world, another 
future British admiral, Alan Gardner, was born at Uttoxeter, a few miles 
from Shugborough, a town which has produced many distinguished men. 
He was the fourth son of Lieutenant-colonel Gardner, and was born 12th 
April, 1742. He entered the navy at fourteen, and after five years' hard 
fighting, was made lieutenant. Subsequently he married a West Indian 
lady, and on the breaking out of the American War, became a captain, 
and achieved considerable glory. At the end of the war he became a Lord 
of the Admiralty, and represented Plymouth, and afterwards Westminster, 
in Parhament. In 1793 he was made rear-admiral, and from this period to 
1807 was constantly in action, and, in the words of Fox, "served his 



320 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



country with a zeal, a gallantry, a spirit, and a splendour that will reflect 
upon him immortal honour." In 1806 the old admiral was made Baron 
Gardner of Uttoxeter. He died 18 10, at the age of sixty-eight. 

A more lengthened career was that of John Jervis, of Meaford, the son 
of Swynfen Jervis, of Darlaston, Stone, and grandson of James Jervis, of 
Eccleshall. Born in 1734, this renowned seaman served in the British navy 
from his tenth year, passing through all grades of the service he was made 
a commander in 1793, and on the 14th February, 1797, commanded in the 
famous battle of St. Vincent, in which he obtained a victory over the Spanish 
fleet probably unparalleled in our naval history. The honour of this victory 
was shared by Nelson, Trowbridge, Collingwood, and the seamen, who all 
fought with great valour, and the skill of the commander was recognised 
by his being created Baron Jervis of Meaford and Earl St. Vincent. Subse- 
quently he attained distinguished honour as First Lord of the Admiralty, 
and a reformer of naval abuses, and eventually was created Admiral of the 
Fleet, and died in 1823. 

Among the British soldiers connected with the shire none have surpassed 
the intrepid Earl of Uxbridge, who shares the honours of Waterloo with 
Wellington. William Paget, the founder of the family, was a native of 
Wednesbury, but removing to London his son gained the confidence of 
Henry VIIL, was created Baron Paget of Beaudesert, the family title 
until 1784. Henry William Paget, Earl of Uxbridge, of Beaudesert, and 
Marquis of Anglesey, was born 1768. As Lord Paget he passed through 
fifteen years of hard fighting between 1794 and 1809, and after a few years 
of rest he was again brought into activity upon the escape of Napoleon from 
Elba. With Waterloo his military career ended and his fame rests. As 
commander of the cavalry, his repeated and brilliant charges throughout the 
day entirely frustrated the reliant hopes of Napoleon by breaking up whole 
battalions of his " impregnable " guards — and it was generally believed that 
the Earl's intention of capturing Napoleon in person was only defeated by 
his being shot in the knee towards the close of the battle. This wound 
cost the Earl his leg, which was amputated in the house of a draper in 
Waterloo. Five days later the Earl was created Marquis of Anglesey, and in 



SONS OF THE SHIRE. 32I 



two months he returned to Beaudesert, where his brave and fearless Hfe 
came to a close in 1854. 

In the pages of Plot are recorded the names of many persons he considered 
entitled to publicity. Whilst we may pass these by, we can scarcely omit 
the names of the two prominent supporters of Protector Cromwell — Major- 
General Thomas Harrison and the learned John Goodwin. Both are reputed 
to have been born in Newcastle. Harrison was, according to some accounts, 
the son of an attorney, by others of a butcher of Newcastle. Advanced by his 
bravery to a prominent position in the State, he was one of the Court by 
which Charles I. was condemned, and signed the death warrant. At the 
Restoration he was one of the few who suffered for the act of the many, 
and was executed 1680. 

Turning aside now to the men of genius, learning, and culture, whom 
Staffordshire claims among her honoured sons, it may with equal truth be 
said that in this category the distant past, with which these records deal 
more minutely, has no monopoly of the illustrious sons of the shire — saints 
and martyrs, founders of abbey or cell, bishops, leaders in the cause of 
Christianity or of hberty. Nor do the brief records of men like Izaak 
Walton, Charles Cotton, Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, and others in- 
cidentally touched upon in these pages exhaust the roll of men of light 
and leading. 

Probably no shire has produced so many eminent antiquaries as Stafford- 
shire. Elias Ashmole, the founder of the museum which bears his name 
at Oxford, was born at Lichfield ; Sampson Erdeswick, the county's first 
historian, at Sandon ; Thomas Allen and Simon Degge, at Uttoxeter ; 
Yoxall, the home of Izaak Walton's ancestors, claims Thomas Astle, the 
author of the " History of Writing." Richard Gough lived at Perry Hall, 
Wyrley at Hampstead, and William Chetwynd at historic Ingestre. The 
principal historians of the county have almost all been Staffordshire men ; Pitt 
was born near Wolverhampton ; Stebbing Shaw, the author of the great county 
history which will never be superseded but, it may be hoped, will some day be 
completed, was a native of Stone ; and Harwood was a native as well as the 
historian of Lichfield. Even Camden was closely allied to the county, his 



322 HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



father, Sampson Camden, belonging to Lichfield, and the family for some 
generations were settled there and at Elford. 

Among famous law^'ers the shire claims among her sons, in addition to 
the famous chancellor, Thomas Parker (Lord Macclesfield), Talbot, Littleton, 
Whorwood, Thomas Gerard, Edmund Dudley, Richard Shelton, William 
Anson, and Richard Weston. The list of poets includes, besides those 
already enumerated, Elijah Fenton, of Shelton ; Isaac Hawkins Browne, of 
Burton ; and Edward Farmer, of Tamworth ; of eminent churchmen, Arch- 
bishop Sheldon, founder of the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford ; John Light- 
foot, the great Biblical scholar and critic of the 17th century ; Bishops 
Dudley, Stafford, Audley, Smalridge, Newton, Hurd, and Giffard, (Arch- 
bishop of Rheims), in addition to those already enumerated in these pages. 

But when we come to the list of those associated with the county our 
list broadens considerably. Memories of Michael Drayton (whose quaint 
poetical topography can never be forgotten) cling close around Tixall ; and 
during the childhood of our great modern novelist, best known as ' George 
Eliot,' the romantic district of Ellaston, near Weaver Hill, was her occasional 
home. Thomas Moore wrote his " Lalla Rookh " at Mayfield, near Ashbourne, 
and there passed some of his happiest days. Jean Jacques Rousseau lived at 
Wootton, not far from Ashbourne, too, and wrote his " Confessions " within 
the county of Staffordshire. Ward, the author of a once famous novel, 
" Tremaine," also lived near here ; while Congreve, one of the wittiest 
dramatists of the Restoration, wrote his first drama at stately Ham. The 
name of Jonathan Swift, too, is connected with the Four Crosses, and Sir 
William Dugdale was intimately associated with the shire. To mention the 
names of Richard Lovel Edgeworth, of Thomas Day, of Erasmus Darwin, 
and of Anna Seward, is merely to recall other notable names associated with 
the county which have already been mentioned in a recent chapter. 

Nor must other notable names of sons of the shire be omitted from this 
enumeration. Thomas Guy, the founder of Guy's Hospital and of an alms- 
house at Tamworth, was born at Tamworth ; Alderman Boydell, engraver, 
Lord Mayor of London, and the enterprising publisher of the largest 
edition of Shakespeare — with its "Boydell Gallery" of extra plates — was a 



SONS OF THE SHIRE. 



323 



native of Staffordshire ; John Wyatt, the inventor of the first flax-spinning 
machinery and of the platform weighing machine, was a native of Weeford ; 
and James Wyatt, the architectural "restorer," whose sham Gothic disfigures 
so many of our cathedrals, was born at Burton-on-Trent. The ancient 
Floyer family, of Hints, claim as their kinsman the celebrated physician of 
that name who sent Johnson to receive the Royal touch, and also wrote 
several curious medical tracts. 

This catalogue of worthy sons of the shire is, however, after all, only the 
enumeration of a few men who have stood a little higher than their 
brethren with whom they have laboured, side by side ; and it might be 
possible to compile a much fuller list, did space and other circumstances 
permit, of men whose lives, spent in the shire of which we have written 
in these pages, have contributed in some measure to the making of England, 
whose deeds are equally worthy of enrolment among the memorable episodes 
in the history of Staffordshire. 



': 


,..-j£: ' 




rr.l 






i 


'i - ~ ""^ _. 


r^y-ra 



T, Garlanti, 



Cant.ock. 



BEAUDESERT. 




THE OAK HOUSE, WEST BROMWICH. 



an 3nterc6tino IRcetoration. 

NE of the finest specimens of the old timbered houses of 

the 1 6th century in South Staffordshire is the Oak House, 

West Bromwich, declared by Niven to be " one of the most 

interesting timber-built houses in the country." It is said to 

take its name from an ancient oak which stood on a green 

in front of the house, and it was for many years in the 

possession of the Turton family, a branch of the better known family of the 

same name at Alrewas. Originally it occupied considerably less ground than 

it now does, and was merely a yeoman's house ; but in the early years of the 




AN INTERESTING RESTORATION. 325 



17th century John Turton the younger made considerable additions to it, in 
the style prevalent at that period. One of the most curious features is the 
old timbered lantern turret, which surmounts the building, and served as a 
look-out during the troublous times of the Civil War.* Other evidences of 
this period of disturbance are to be found in the caserne roofs, on each side 
of the turret, under which soldiers might sleep when billeted at the 
" Mansion House," as it was sometimes called in later days. The house is 
shown on Plot's map of Staffordshire, where it is called " The Oake ; " and 
the arms of Turton are engraved in the margin. 

By the munificence of Alderman Reuben Farley, the Oak House came 
into the possession of the Corporation of West Bromwich in the year 1895, 
and is now undergoing the most careful and painstaking restoration at 
the hands of Mr. W. H. Kendrick,t whereby the building will be put into 
a thoroughly sound condition, while nothing will be altered of the 



* Captain Robert Turton, of Birmingham, the Parliamentarian who opposed the passage of Prince Rupert's force 
through that town, was cousin to John Turton the younger. 

f Mr. Kendrick had expressed his opinion, in a thorough and exhaustive report to the Council 
that the building might be patched and repaired at an outlay of about ;^50o ; but he strongly 
recommended that it should be thoroughly restored at a cost of ^1500. Upon this, the donor of 
the house addressed the following letter (which is worthy of a place among the records of worthy 
deeds of sons of the shire) to the Town Clerk of West Bromwich : — 

"September nth, 1895. 
"Dear Sir,— Mr. Kendrick 's report on the Oak House, which you sent me, I have read wtih 
much interest. This able and elaborate report bears upon it the impress of having been 
prepared by a loving hand, a reverential mind, a born archaeologist. I agree with Mr. 
Kendrick that the right course to pursue is thorough restoration, and not reparation, although 
the estimated cost is in excess of what I had calculated upon. As the giver of the Oak 
House, I should not like the rates to be burdened with the cost of the restoration. I shall 
therefore be willing to undertake the restoration and the adaptation of the pleasure grounds 
upon the lines laid down by Mr. Kendrick, and under his supervision, upon the following 
condition : — ' That the Oak House shall be dedicated and maintained as a Museum and Art 
Gallery for the free use and enjoyment of the inhabitants of West Bromwich for ever.' 

" Faithfully yours, 
"Alfred Caddick, Esq., Town Clerk. "REUBEN FARLEY." 

In recognition of this munificent gift, the Freedom of the Borough of West Bromwich was con- 
ferred upon Mr. Farley, on the 20th April, 1896, in a handsome casket, the wood of which was a 
portion of the original timber of the Oak House. 



326 



HISTORIC STAFFORDSHIRE. 



quaint old timbered house, which for architectural and archaeological interest 
is not surpassed by any example now extant of i6th century domestic 
architecture. 

It is intended, when the restoration is completed, to convert the house 
into a museum. The old house itself will, however, be the most interest- 
ing feature of the museum, both from an archaeological and architectural 
point of view. It contains some good examples of old ironwork, and a 
number of specimens of the simple wood-carving of the yeoman builder 
and his workmen, the balusters of the staircase forming a curious and 
interesting series of specimens, developing in intricacy of design as they 
proceed upward. The panelling of some of the rooms, too, is enriched 
with excellent carving in high and low relief, and the solid work of the 
old builders affords many valuable lessons in building construction. 

Many interesting particulars as to the Turton families of West Bromwich 
and Oldbury will be found in the pages of Mrs. Willett's valuable 
History of West Bromwich. 




THE OAK HOUSE, WEST BROMWICH (FRONT VIEW). 
(From an old print.) 




WALTON AND COTTON'S FISHING HOUSE, BERESFORD DALE. 



3nbey, 



PAGE. 
Abbeys, Priories, etc., in Staffordshire, see 

Burton, Canwell, Croxden, Dieu-la Cres, 

Lapley. 
Abbot's Bromley, Mary Queen of Scots at 200 



IMclllVCl. V^IUSS, View Ul 

^thelbald. King of Mercia 


31, 34 


Algar, son of Leofric of Mercia 


63 


Allen (T.) 


321 


Alrewas and its Manorial Customs 100 el seq. 


Alston field Church 


276 


Anglesey (Marquis of) .. 


320 


Anson (Lord) 


318 


Ashmole (Elias) 


321 


Astle(T.) 


321 


Aston Furnace 


264 


Aston (Lord), of Tixall 


277 



Atkins William), Trial of 280' 

Audley (Lord) at the Battle of Blore Heath 144 

Audley's (Lord) Cross, View of 145 

Bagot, Anthony and Richard, of Blithefield 213 
Basset Family of Drayton ... 97, 117 <•/ seg. 
Basset's Pole, The Tanner of Tamworth at 148 
View near 

Beaudesert, View of, 323 ; Ancient Encamp- 
ment near 



Beaufort (Margaret), xMother of Henry VH., 

at Elford _' 

Bentley Hall, Charles H, at 

Old View of 

Beresford Dale 

Bermingham Family (The) and the Ferrers 
Family ... 



149 
138 



159 
256 

257 
275 

99 



3*8 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 
Birmingham, Dr. Johnson at ... 298, 3CX5 

Black Brook (View) 121 

Blore Heath, Battle of 1^4. et seg. 

Boscobel, Charles II. at Boscobel ... 254 ;/ seg. 

The King's Hiding-place at (View) 255 

Bosworth Field, The Eve of the Battle of 

IS7 et seq. 
Boulton (Matthew) and the Soho Factory 

310 ?/ seq. 

Boydell (Alderman) 322 

Bradley Hall, Kingswinford, View of ... 219 
Bread, Assize of, at Tamworth ... ... 176 

Brereton (Sir Wm.) at the Battle of Hopton 

Heath ... ... 2^ et seq. 

Brindley (Wm.), his Journey to the German 

Ironworks ... ... ... ... 265 

Brocklehurst (P. L.), Esq., of Swythamley, 

85, 181 
Bromwich (Andrew), Trial of ... 280 et seq. 
Brooke (Lord) Killed at the Siege of Lich- 
field 232 

Browne (Isaac Hawkins) ... ... ... 322 

Bull-running at Tutbury ... ... ... 226 

Burchard, Founder of Lapley Priory 61, 62 

Burslem 305 

Burton, taken by Queen Henrietta ... 246 

Old View of 47 

Abbey ^T et seq. 

View of ... ... ... ... 51 

P'riar's Walk (View) face 50 

Porter's Lodge (View) 52 

Calthorpe Family 261 et seq. 

Cannock, The Royal Forest of ... 135 «' s^q- 
Cannock Chase, Ancient Encampment on 

138, 143 

Robberyon,by Sir Robert de Ridware 151 

View on ... ... 19 

Canwell, Benedictine Priory at 118 

Captain of Industry (A) ... ... 310 et seq. 

Carles (Colonel) 255 

Castle Ring, Ancient Encampment on 

Cannock Chase 138 

View of 143 



PAGE. 

Catholics at Oscott and Perry Barr 289 et seq. 

Chad, Bishop of Lichfield 20 et seq. 

Charles I. in Staffordshire 228 et seq. 

Charles II., Escape of, after the Battle of 

Worcester .. le^^ et seq. 

Chartley, the Barons of ... ... g^ et seq. 

The Devereux Family at ... 209 et seq. 

Castle, Mary Queen of Scots at ... 197 

Views of 95,99,211 

225 

Chaucer (Geoffrey) a Probable Visitor at 

Tutbury Castle 128 

Chawney (Thomas), the last Abbot of 

Croxden... ... ... ... ... 108 

Cheadle, View of 293 

Chester (Ranulf, Earl of) founds Dieu-la- 

Cres Abbey ... ... ... JS et seq. 

and Robin Hood ... ... ... 102 

Chesterfield (Earl of) killed at Hopton 

Heath 238 

Chelwynd and Stanley, 186 et seq. ; Sir 
William Chetwynd murdered at the 
instance of Sir Humphrey Stanley ... 189 
Christianity (Early) in Staffordshire, 

12 et seq. ; 20 (t seq. 
Civil War in Staffordshire 228 et seq. ; 2\b et seq. 
Clinton (Roger de), Bishop of Lichfield, re- 
builds the Cathedral 88 

Coinage (Early) at Tamworth 77 

Collegiate Churches of Staffordshire iTi et seq. 
Cotton (Charles) and Izaak Walton 272 et seq. 
Crowland, Guthlac's Cell at ... ... 31 

Croxden Abbey and its Founder ... 106 et seq. 
Court of Minstrels at Tutbury ... 127 et seq. 
Dane (River), View on the ... ... /ace S2 

Danes, The, in Staffordshire ... ^i et seq. 

Darwin (Dr. Erasmus) at Lichfield, 300 ; 

visits Boulton at Soho ... ... ... 314 

Day (Thomas) ... ... ... 300, 314 

Degge (Simon) ... ... 321 

Derby, The Ferrers Family, Earls of 94 et seq. 
Despencer (Robert le), was he a Marmibn ? 71 
Devereuxs (The Three) ... ... 2og et seq. 



INDEX. 



329 



PAGE. 

Dieu-la-Cres Abbey JS et Sff. 

Dove Dale, Views in ... 12, 13, 273, 279 

Dove (River), Treasure sunk in, at Tut- 

bury no/e 124 

Drayton and the Basset Family ... 117 et seq. 

Drayton (Michael) 322 

Drayton Basset acquired by Robert Dudley, 

Earl of Leicester 

Old View of 117 

Manor, View of 215 

Drida, wife of Offa of Mercia ... ... 33 

Dudley (Dud), His Discoveries in Smelting 

Iron Ore ... ... 265-6 

Dudley from the Castle Hill (View) ... 204 

Castle, Siege of ... ... ... 249 

Old Town Hall (View) 207 

Dudleys (The Three) ... ... 20\ et seq. 

Dunge Falls, Upper Hulme (View) ... 83 

Dyott Family, Lichfield 232 

Eccleshall Castle rebuilt by Bishop Langton 93 

Besieged 248 

Edgeworth (Richard Lovel) ... 3CX5, 314 

Editha (St.), Legend of 71 

Edward IV. and the Tanner of Tamworth 

148 et seq. 
Edwin, Son of Algar of Mercia ... ... 64 

Eginton (Francis) at Soho 313 

Elford, supposed Secret Visit of Henry 

Richmond to .. ... ... ... 159 

Elford Church, Interior (View) 163 

The Slang Oak near (View) 159 

Elizabeth (Queen) and the Earl of Essex ... 212 
Engles (The), Masters of the Midlands 5 et seq. 

Erdeswick (S.) 321 

Essex, The Earls of (Devereux Family) 209 et seq. 
Ethelfleda and her Fortress at Tamworth 

39 et seq. 
Etruria, Wedgwood's Pottery at ... ... 309 

Evesham (Battle of), Staffordshire men 

slain at ... ... 97, 119 

Faith and Freedom ... 2%0 et seq. 

Farley (Alderman R.) 324 

Fenton (Elijah) 322 



PAGE. 

Ferrers Family of Chartley 94 tt seq. 

of Tamworth Castle ... 75 

Flitch of Bacon Tenure at Wichnor ... 127 

Foley (Richard), the Fiddler who journeyed 

to Sweden 265 

Forest Laws ... ... ... ... ... 136 

Forests (Royal) of Kinver and Cannock 

135 et seq. 
Fox (George), his Message to Lichfield ... 235 
Frewen (Accepted), Bishop of Lichfield 

note 236 
Freville Family of Tamworth Castle ... 75 
Gardner (Alan) ... ... ... ... 319 

Garrick (David) ... ... ... ... 299 

Gaveston (Piers) and Bishop Langton ... 91 

Gell (Sir John) 232 

Genings (Stephen), of Wolverhampton ... 241 
Godiva, The Legend of ... ... ... 54 

Gog and Magog : Ancient Oaks at Mavesyn 

Ridware .. .. 133 

Goodwin (Dr. John) .. ... ... ... 321 

Gough (Richard) 321 

Goughs (The) of Old Fallings ... 258 et seq. 
Gnosall, Collegiate Church at ... ... 180 

Gunpowder Plot, The End of the ... 217 et seq. 
Guthlac, Prince and Hermit ... 2g et seq. 

Guy (Thomas) ... ... ... ... 322 

Hackett (Bishop) Restores Lichfield Cathe- 
dral 23s 

Hamps (River) 274, 302 

Handsacre and Malvoisin ... ... 1^0 et seq. 

Handsacre Hall (View) ... ... ... vii. 

Handsworth, Boulton and Watt at ... 310 

Harrison (General Thomas) 321 

Harwood (Thomas) 321 

Haselour Hall (View) 157 

Hen Cloud (Views) 10,42 

Holbeche Manor House and the Gunpowder 

Plot 217 «/j^^. ; view of, 221 

Holcroft (Thomas) note 307 

Holford Mill, Perry Barr , 264 

Holte (Sir Robert) 278 

Hopton Heath, The Battle of, 237 et seq. ; 246 



330 



INDEX. 



Hopwas Forest, Stone taken from, to re- 
build Lichfield Cathedral 

Hunter (John), Schoolmaster of Dr. Johnson 

Ham Hall, Dr. Johnson at ... 

Ingestre, i86 ; Old View of Hall 

Iron-workers (Early) 

Jennings (S.), see Genings. 

Jervis (John), Earl St. Vincent 

John (King), His Heart Buried at Croxden 
Abbey 

Johnson (Michael) ... 

Johnson (Samuel) and his Home 

Portrait of 

Birthplace of (View) ... 

Keele, The Knights Templars at ... 
King's Bromley and Leofric, 54 ; View of, 

56 ; Church (View), 60 : King's Brom- 
ley Manor (View) 

King's Champion, Office of, filled by Philip 
Marmion 

Kingswinford, Bradley Hall 

Kinver, The Royal Forest of 

View of, 135 ; Churchyard, View from 

Rock Houses near (View) ... 

View from Kinver Edge 

Knights Templars in Staffordshire 

Lacy (William de) ... 

Lane Family and Charles H. 

Langton (Walter), Bishop of Lichfield ... 88 

Lapley Priory and its Founder ... ... 61 

Leek during the Civil War 248 

The Pretender in ... ... l^T et seq. 

Birthplace of Lord Macclesfield in 

(View) 

Churchyard, curious Tomb of William 

Trafford in 

Churchyard, Ancient Pillar in (View) 

Roches, View of 

St. Edward's Street (View) .. 

Leicester, Earl of (Robert Dudley) 

Leofric (Earl) of Bromley 

Leveson Family of Wolverhampton 
Leveson (Colonel) 



295 
301 
188 
262 

320 

... 107 
... 294 
294 et seq 
... 296 
• •• 295 
... . 86 



"3 

75 
219 

135 
190 
262 
142 
86 
183 
257 



284 



face p. 4 
... 286 
... 205 

54 et seq. 
... 240 
... 249 



PAGE. 



Leveson (Vice-Admiral Sir Richard), Statue 



of 



.. 244 
.. 225 
.. 88 
■ • 255 
91, 302 



Lichfield in 1634 

Cathedral and its Builders ... 

Restored by Bishop Hackett 

Views of ... 18, 89 

Dr. Johnson and ... ... 2<)^ et seg. 

St. Chad and other Early Bishops of 20 

St. Chad's Church (View) ... ... 27 

Well (View) 21 

Siege of 231 

Articles for delivering up the 

Close 236 

Views of: (Old View) 28, (Dam 

Street) 231 ; Old House in Bore Street, 

298; Birthplace of Johnson ... ... 295 

Lightfoot (Dr. John) ... ... ... 322 

Lisle, Viscount (John Dudley) ... ... 203 

Littleton (Stephen), of Holbeche Manor, 

and the Gunpowder Plot ... ... 217 

Lollards (The) at Ludchurch 184 

Loxley and Robin Hood ... ... ... loi 

Ludchurch, Legend of ... ... ... 181 

Macclesfield (Thomas Parker, Earl of), 284 et seq. 

Malvoisin and Handsacre ... ... ... 130 

Manifold (River), Views on the ... 2, 271, 274 

Subterranean Course of ... ... 302 

Manorial Customs at Alrewas ... ... iio 

Marmion Family at Tamworth ... ... 71 

Marmion (Philip) charged by Ralph Basset 

with stealing his flour ., ... ... 119 

Mary, Queen of Scots, at Tutbury ... 194 

Mavesyn Ridware, see Malvoisin, 

Meal Ark Clough (View) ... ... ... 292 

Mercia, The Upbuilding of ... c^ et seq. 

Minstrels, Court of, at Tutbury ... ... 127 

Moat, Ancient, at Radmore (View) ... 138 

Modwen at Burton ... .., ... ... 48 

Moore (Thomas), Mayfield ... ... 322 

Morcar, son of Algar of Mercia ... ... 64 

Moseley Hall, Charles II. at, 256 ; View of 253 
Mucclestone Church, Queen Margaret at... 147 
View of ... ... ... ... 147 



INDEX 



331 



PAGE. 

Murdock (William) 312 

Mystery Play at Tamworth note 176 

Narrowdale ... 275 

Needwood Forest, Oaks in (View) 7 

Newcastle, Description of the Fortress of, note 128 

" Curious Black Teapots," made at, 

noU 307 

Norbury (Bishop) 93,178 

Normans (The) in Staffordshire ... 63 et seq. 
Northumberland, Duke of (John Dudley)... 204 
Oak House, West Bromwich, 324 ; View of 324 

Offa and Drida n et seq. 

Offa'sDyke 35 

Okeover, View of ... ... ... ... 201 

Old Fallings, The Goughs of ... 2C,S et seq. 
Oscott College and Andrew Bromwich, 281 ; 
View of the old College ... ... 281 

Pagan and Christian ,.. ... ... 13 

Paget (H, W.), Marquis of Anglesey ... 320 
Parker (Thomas), Earl of Macclesfield, 284 el seq. 
Parkes (Richard), of Willingsworth ... 266 

Peada, King of Mercia ... ... ... 14 

Penda, King of Mercia ... ... 14,22 

Pederel (Richard) of Boscobel ... ... 254 

Penkridge Collegiate Church ... ... 180 

Perry Barr, Ancient Bridge at (View) ... 267 

Hall, View of ... ... ... ... 260 

Holford Mill at 264 

" Popish Recusants " at, ... 280 el seq. 

Pike Pool, 276 ; View of 277 

Pitt( .) 321 

Plantagenets (The) and Tutbury Castle ... 122 
Plumpton Manor, near Kingsbury ... 156 

Pole (Cardinal) ... ... ... ... 190 

Polesworth Abbey, Legend of ... ... 71 

Porter Family of Lichfield note 295, 299, 300 

Potters (Early) i'^^ et seq. 

Poulet (Sir Amyas) and Mary Queen of 

Scots ... ... ... ... 197, 198 

Powell (Edward), Friend of Izaak Walton 272 
Pretender (The) in Staffordshire ... 287 el seq. 
Radmore, The King's House and Priory at 138 



PAGE. 
Ranulph (Earl), see Chester (Ranulph, 

Earl oO- 
Repton Abbey Cloister (View) ... /ace p. 2g 
Richmond (Henry), His March through 

Staffordshire ... 157 

Ridware (Sir Robert de). Commits a High- 
way Robbery on Cannock Chase ... 151 
Robin Hood of Loxley ... ... ... loi 

Rolleston, View of 68 

Rousseau in Staffordshire ... ... .. 322 

Rudyard Lake, View of ... 182 

Ruffine, Murder of ... 23 

Rupert (Prince) Directs the second Siege 

of Lichfield ... ... 234 

Rushall Hall taken by Prince Rupert, 246 ; 

re-captured by Parliamentary Forces... 249 
Sadler (Sir Ralph), Custodian of Mary 

Queen of Scots ... ... ... ... 194 

St. Vincent (Earl) ... ... 320 

Salisbury (Richard Neville, Earl of) at the 

Battle of Blore Heath ... 144 

Scottish Queen (The) at Tutbury 194 

Scroggs (Sir William) ... .. ... 280 

Scrope, Richard, Bishop of Lichfield ... 131 

Seward (Anna) ... ... ... ... 300 

Shaw (Stebbing) ... ... ... ... 321 

Sheldon (Archbishop) ... ... ... 322 

Shugborough, 186 ; View of Bridge ... 319 

Soho Factory (View) .. ... ... 313 

Park (View) ... ... 310 

Somerville Family, Lords of Alrewas, in; 

the Wichnor Flitch ... ... ... 127 

Sons of the Shire ... ... ... z^^ et seq, 

Stafford, The Noble House of ... ... 164 

Stafford in 1634. ... ... ... ... 224 

Old View of ... ... ... ... 169 

Alrewas to Assist in the Defence of... 116 

Castle, Views of ... 45, i/aee) 164, 170 

Collegiate Church of 178 

View of ... . . ... 269 

— — Ancient Font in (View).. 179 

High House, Views of ... 238, 239 

Old Iron Gate at (View) 164 



33* 



INDEX. 



5 
223 

159 

186 
190 
191 

25 



252 



250 



PAGE. 

Stafford Old Shire Hall (View) 224 

Sons of the Shire ... ... 318 tt seq. 

Walton's Family at, 268 ; his Bequest 

to the Town 279 

The Pretender in, 2?>T el seq. 

Staffordshire, its Resources, Scenery, etc., 

I ; the Formation of the Shire 

(Through) in 1634 

Stanleys (The) of Elford, and Henry Rich- 
mond 

Stanley (Sir Humphrey), his Feud against 

Sir William Chetwynd... 
Stourton Castle, Cardinal Pole born at ... 

Stowe, St. Chad at 

Strange (Hamon le) 

Swythamley, 184 ; Ancient Manorial.Court 

of, 84 ; View in the Park 

Symmons (Colonel) Diary of, during the 

Civil War 

Tamworth, its Castle, built by Ethelfleda, 

39 ; the Marmion Family at, 70 ; 

Besieged and taken by Parliamentary 

Forces 246 

Viewsof 33, O^f) 75, 153 

Castle, Views of (face) 39, 40, 70, 247 

View from ... ... ... 36 

Church (Collegiate), History of, 174 ; 

Old View of 

Offaat 

Road, near Basset's Pole (View) 

Richmond's Forces at 

The Tanner of, and Edward IV. 

Templars, see Knights Templars. 
Tenures (Curious) at Alrewas 
Tettenhall Collegiate Church 
Tixall, 225 ; Mary Queen of Scots at 

Views of ... 187, (Gatehouse) 213 

Trafford Family of Swythamley ... 84, 184, 248 
Trafford's Leap ... ... ... ... 185 

Treasure Sunk in the Dove at Tutbury note 124 
Trent, View of, near Alrewas ... ... 115 



175 

35 

149 

158 
148 

113 
179 
198 



PAGE. 
Trent, View of, at Wolseley 225 

Wooden Bridge over (View) 116 

Trentham, Parliamentary Force at .. 249 

Old View of ... ... .. ... 249 

Tutbury Castle and the Ferrers Family, 

94 ; the Plantagenets at, 122 ; Charles 
I. at, 226 ; Mary Queen of Scots at, 
194 ; Views of, 123, 126, /ace 12%, face 196, 229 

Church, View of, 123 ; Church Dojr 

(View) 

Robin Hood at 

Uttoxeter Butter Pots 

Dr. Johnson at 

Verdum (Bertram, Baron), Founder of Crox 

den Abbey 

Walsall, 246 ; see also under Rushall. 
Walton (Izaak) and his Compleat Angler .. 
Wedgwood Family ... 

(Josiah), 307 ; Portrait of 

Medallion by ... 

West Bromwich, The Oak House at 
White-ladies, Charles II. at 

Wichnor Flitch (The) 

Willenhall 

Wolseley, The Trent at (View) 
Wolverhampton, Bailiffs of the Staple 

Charles I. at ... 

Old View of 

Collegiate Church, 171 ; Views of, 

172, 243 ; Old Pulpit in (View) 

Old Hall 

Wool-staplers ... 

Wotton (Sir Henry) 

Wyatt (James) 

(John) 

Wright (Robert), Bishop of Lichfield 

Wulfade and Rufifine, .Murder of ... 

Wulfhere, King of Mercia ... 

Wulfric (Earl) Founds Burton .Abbey 

Wulfruna 

Wycliffe's Followers at Ludchurch 

Yo.xall, Walton Family at 



32 
105 
305 
301 

107 



306 et seq. 

... 305 

... 308 

• •• 324 

... 254 

... 127 

... 240 

... 225 

... 241 

... 229 

... 258 



... 173 

... 240 

... 240 

... 270 

••• 323 

... 323 

tto'e 236 

... 23 

... 16 

... 47 

... 171 

... 184 

... 268 



